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Updated: May 13, 2025
Then they talked of other things, but as they turned at the Presidio for a last look at the Golden Gate, Mostyn said musingly: "I wonder how many millions' worth of smuggled opium have come in that open door?" Debney shrugged a shoulder. "Try Nob Hill, Fifth Avenue, and the Champs Elysees. What does a poor man-o'-war's-man know of such things?"
That plank be five inches thick, at the very least, an' you see he's stuck his snout through it more'n a foot! Lor 'a mercy on us! What wonderful queery creeturs the ocean do contain!" And with this philosophic reflection, from the lips of the man-o'-war's-man, ended the adventure.
A strapping man-o'-war's-man sat near the door, his jacket thrown open and his great chest bared, and when he perceived me he was in the act of proposing a catch; 'twas "The Great Bell o' Lincoln," I believe; and he held a brimming cup of bumbo in his hand. In his surprise he set it awkwardly down again, thereby spilling full half of it.
Enter Rowland in the crow's-nest, quartermaster," said the officer; then, making a funnel of his hands, he roared out: "Crow's-nest, there." "Sir," came the answer, shrill and clear on the gale. "Keep your eyes open keep a sharp lookout." "Very good, sir." "Been a man-o'-war's-man, I judge, by his answer. They're no good," muttered the officer.
One might suppose that an English man-o'-war's-man, in pilot-cloth pea-jacket, glazed hat, and wide duck trousers, would have been a singular sight to the eyes of the dark-skinned individuals who now encircled him; dressed, as all of them were, in gay-coloured floating shawl-robes, slippered or sandalled feet, and with fez caps or turbans on their heads.
Piqued by the little mystery, I pulled for the beach, with the determination to see for myself who the intruder might be, and what were his intentions. Leaving my sister at Branksome, and summoning Seth Jamieson, an old man-o'-war's-man and one of the stoutest of the fishermen, I set off across the moor with him through the gathering darkness.
Two of the six were pronounced by Sailor Bill to be Kroomen, a race of Africans with whose appearance he was somewhat familiar, having often seen them acting as sailors in ships coming from the African coast. The other slaves were much lighter in complexion, and by the old man-o'-war's-man were called "Portugee blacks."
The ravine, up which the maherry had carried the old man-o'-war's-man, ran perpendicularly to the trending of the seashore, and almost in a direct line from the beach to the valley in which was the Arab encampment. It could not, however, be said to debouch into this valley.
At an earlier hour, and still more rudely, had Sailor Bill received the commands of his master; who, as the first rays of the Aurora began to dapple the horizon, had ordered the old man-o'-war's-man to his feet, at the same time administering to him a cruel kick, that came very near shivering some of his stern timbers.
Watching these various movements were the three mids, still stripped to their shirts, and the old man-o'-war's-man, clad with like scantiness; since the only garment that clung to his sinewy frame was a pair of cotton drawers, neither very clean nor very sound at the seams.
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