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The reply to this was a tremendous cuff on the ear which sent the poor boy staggering backwards, so that he nearly fell. Recovering himself he retired behind the Coper's boat and tried to crush down the sobs that rose in his throat. He was to some extent successful, but a few tears that could not be restrained hopped over his sunburnt cheeks.
A deep-toned curse issued from his lips when the fish went down, and he dashed the handspike to the deck with fearful violence. Once again, at this critical moment, the demon ventured to raise his head. "The Coper's close on the port bow!" he whispered; "go, drown it all in grog, man, and be jolly!" Jolly!
"You'll get things cheaper aboard the mission-ship, for they'll give you physic, an' books, an good advice, and help as far as they can, all for nothing which is cheaper than the Coper's wares." "Right you are, Luke. Pitch into him," cried David Bright who was fast drinking himself into a state of madness. "Father," whispered Billy, with an anxious look, "don't you think you've had enough?"
On one occasion during a drunken quarrel in the coper's cabin one skipper threw the kerosene lamp over another lying intoxicated on the floor. His heavy wool jersey soaked in kerosene caught fire. He rushed for the deck, and then, a dancing mass of flames, leaped overboard and disappeared. Occasionally skippers devised punishments with a view to remedying the defects of character.
"Not I!" said Gunter, with a drunken swagger. "I'm not goin' for an hour or more." "Oh yes, you are," returned Luke, dipping one of the Coper's buckets over the side and pulling it up full of water. "No, I ain't. Who'll make me?" "I will," said Luke, and he sent the contents of the bucket straight into his comrade's face.
Being joined by the others the skipper was rolled to the side of the vessel, and then lifted in a half-sitting position on to the rail, where he was held in the grasp of Gunter and the Coper's skipper, while Luke and Billy, jumping into the boat, hauled it close under the spot. There was what Billy called a "nasty jobble of a sea on," so that many difficulties met in the job they had in hand.
"Y'you you're a jolly good fellow," he stammered; "here, fill up again." The poor skipper filled up again, and again, until his speech began to grow thick and unsteady. "Yesh," continued Gunter, doubling his fist and smiting his knee, "I do like sheap grog an' sheap baccy, an' the Coper's the place to get 'em both. Ain't it?"
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