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Nevertheless, such a society in my juvenile estimation, during my short escapade from the middy's berth, had its charms, and I was rolling in with a tolerable swagger, when Mr Treenail pinched my arm. "Mr Cringle, come here, into my room."
I could hear Mr Treenail rumbling and stumbling in his stateroom as he accoutred himself in a jacket similar to those of the armed boat's crew whom I had passed, and presently he stepped into the gunroom, armed also with cutlass and pistol. "Mr Cringle, get ready to go in the boat with me, and bring your arms with you."
My first signal was not attended to: I rapped again, and, looking round, I noticed Mr. Treenail flitting backwards and forwards across the doorway, in the rain, his pale face and his sharp nose, with the sparkling drop at the end on't, glancing in the light of the lamp. I heard a step within, and a very pretty face now appeared at the wicket. "Who are you saking here, an' please ye?"
It was done; and now broad awake, I determined not to be caught napping again, so I descended, and swung myself in on deck out of the main rigging, just as Mr Treenail was mustering the crew at eight bells. When I landed on the quarterdeck, there he stood abaft the binnacle, with the light shining on his face, his glazed hat glancing, and the rain drop sparkling at the brim of it.
This was much more buoyant than oak, and consequently freighted to advantage. But it was a soft wood, and Lloyd's was slow to rate it at its proper worth. Tamarac hulls went sound for twenty years, and sometimes forty, especially when hardwood treenails were used a treenail being a bolt that did the service of a nail in woodwork or a rivet in steel plating.
Toby! buccra gentlemen arrive, Toby." But no Toby responded to the call. "My dear madam," said Treenail, "I have little time for ceremony. Pray usher us up into Mr -'s presence." "Den follow me, gentlemen, please." Forthwith we all ascended the dark staircase until we reached the first landing place, when we heard a noise as of two negroes wrangling on the steps above us.
It was done, and I was remarking the contrast between the dull, dusky, brown light, or rather the palpable London fog that came through the skylight, and the bright yellow sparkle of the lamp, when the second lieutenant, Mr Treenail, came down the ladder. "We have shoaled our water to five fathoms, sir shells and stones. Here, Wilson, bring in the lead."
But no Toby responded to the call. "My dear madam," said Treenail, "I have little time for ceremony. Pray usher us up into Mr. 's presence." "Den follow me, gentlemen, please." Forthwith we all ascended the dark staircase until we reached the first landing-place, when we heard a noise as of two negroes wrangling on the steps above us.
As for me I was used to roughing it, and in my humble equipment any disarrangement was not particularly discernible, but in poor Treenail. one of the nattiest fellows in the service, it was a very different matter.
Close to the head there was a small door opening into an apartment of some kind, but the coffin was placed so near it that one could pass between the body and the door. "My good man," said Treenail to the solitary mourner, "I must beg leave to remove the body a bit, and have the goodness to open that door." "Door, yere honour!
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