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So deep was it, that they did not hear the increasing noise of the gulls as they wheeled round the beacon after having breakfasted near it; so deep, that they did not feel the sun as it streamed through an opening in the woodwork and glared on their respective faces; so deep, that they were ignorant of the arrival of the boats with the workmen, and were dead to the shouts of their companions, until one of them, Jamie Dove, put his head up the hatchway and uttered one of his loudest roars, close to their ears.
The natives swarmed up the ship's sides like ants invading a sugar canister. Looking down the hatches without seeing any whites, they at once drew their knives and began to plunder. The whites dashed up the hatchway and drove the plunderers over the rails at sword point. East and north the small boats skirted the mist-draped shores, returning at midnight with word the inlet was a closed shore.
So the captain roars down the hatchway, `Tumble up there! tumble up! every man alive! for your lives! And sure enough they did tumble up, as I never seed 'em do it before two or three of 'em was sick; they came up with their clothes in their hands.
The lowering of the boats was discussed in full, but nothing could be made of it, though Raymond insisted that the ship could not go to sea while the boats were away. Half an hour later they heard the faithful on deck hoisting up the boats. Hyde stood at the door of the mess-room watching the hatchway, for any chance revelation of the principal's intentions.
When passing round with the commander presently to see if all the guns had been properly made fast, so that there should be no chance of their "taking charge" in a heavy seaway and running themselves out without leave or licence when we least expected it, I overheard "Joe" Jellaby talking to Charley Gilham, who had now come up from the lower deck and was standing by the main hatchway.
You never git no money." "Won't he give it to me? Him?" Jack Wonnell indicated the hatchway down which Joe Johnson had gone. "He's got bags of it." "Him? Why, Jack, how much money do you s'pose a beautiful servant like Roxy will fetch?" "Won't that piece he's gwyn to give you buy her?" "Five dollars? Why, you poor fool, she will bring five hundred dollars maybe thousands.
But when water had been pouring continuously down the hatchway for fully a quarter of an hour, and the smoke continued to stream up from below in ever- increasing volume, unmingled with any indication of steam, it became apparent that the seat of the fire was at some distance, for the water had evidently not yet reached the flames.
"Think there'll be any more fighting, matey?" said Barney eagerly. "Think there'll be any more fighting? Just hark at him, gentlemen. Why, you grumbling old swab, do you think as, once having hold of the Burgh Castle and calling hisself skipper, old Frenchy's the sort o' man to let a few planks and a hatchway keep him from making another try?
In the waist of the brig, in the narrow spars that were lashed on each side of the hatchway, he could see a group of men squatting in a circle around a wooden tray piled up with rice, which stood on the just swept deck. The dark-faced, soft-eyed silent men, squatting on their hams, fed decorously with an earnestness that did not exclude reserve.
"Did you hear me?" cried the captain in an irritated tone. Brunton made for the hatchway, but before going down he stopped. "Don't go, Brunton!" called out a voice. "Who spoke?" cried Hatteras. "I did," said Pen, advancing towards the captain. "And what did you say?" asked Hatteras. "I say," answered Pen with an oath "I say, we've had enough of it, and we won't go any further.
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