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Even in my time could be seen justifications of his portrayal; but who ever saw the like of Tom Coffin, Trysail, or Boltrope? The two had been acquaintances in Paris, in the twenties of the century and of their own ages. I have always had a morbid fondness for registers and time-tables, and over them have wasted precious hours; but on this occasion the practice saved me a year.
"Stay," pleaded the soft voice of Clara Maitland, the Governor's daughter. "Shave his head! he's a wretched lunatic!" continued Captain Boltrope, while his voice trembled with excitement. "No, let me nurse and take care of him," said the lovely girl, blushing as she spoke. "Mamma, can't we take him home?" The daughter's pleading was not without effect. In the meantime I had fainted.
Put the helm amidships!" he added to the man at the wheel. "We'll have to ease her round and run before it a bit for the last time; and if the wind only holds to the northward for a short spell, we'll get round the point yet and lay her old bones ashore decently. Steady, Boltrope, steady!"
But, the grumblers, in considering their own grievance, did not recollect this, and the appearance of the passenger, whom some of them were already inclined to dislike from something Ben Boltrope had dropped of his being a naval man, and the fact of his now ranging himself alongside of the captain, as if to support his authority, brought matters to a crisis.
For a moment, streaks of reluctant vapor clung to the huge floating pile; but they were soon shaken off by the rapid vessel, and the whole of her black hull became distinct to the eye. "One, two, three rows of teeth!" said Boltrope, deliberately counting the tiers of guns that bristled along the sides of the enemy; "a three- decker!
"Oh, very good, sir!" screamed Captain Boltrope, rubbing his hands and absolutely capering about the deck with rage. "Oh, d n you! Of course you shall! Oh, ho! the gunner's daughter! Oh, h ll! this is too much! Boatswain's mate!" Before I well knew where I was, I was seized, borne to an eight-pounder, tied upon it, and flogged!
If the former, the likelihood was that as soon as the tide began to rise, the vessel would float off and founder, Boltrope having reported that there were eight feet of water in the hold and that it was gaining fast the pumping operations, of course, having long since been stopped, but, should she have run on the reef at high water, there she was immovably fixed as long as she held together; and in that case they would be able to get ashore to the mainland in comfort, almost at their own convenience, should the weather remain calm, in addition to saving many articles from the wreck that would be of use to them, and a much larger proportion of the ship's provisions and stores.
The figure that was seated by itself in the stern of the boat started at this second summons, and then, as if with sudden recollection, a quiet voice replied: "No no." "'No no, and 'flag, are very different answers," grumbled Boltrope; "what know-nothing have we here?"
"And the rest of the young gentlemen?" roared the enraged officer. "All masthead, sir." "Ah!" said Captain Boltrope, as he smiled grimly, "under the circumstances, Mr. Breezy, you had better go to the masthead too." At the masthead I made the acquaintance of two youngsters of about my own age, one of whom informed me that he had been there three hundred and thirty-two days out of the year.
The bending of the staysail was no very serious matter; it simply meant letting go the halliards, dragging upon the downhaul, cutting the boltrope away from the hanks, passing the new seizings, hoisting the sail foot by foot until I had got all the seizings finished, bending the sheets afresh, and there we were. But to bend a topsail, single-handed, was a much more difficult job.
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