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I am afraid the entry was open to criticism, and that the existence, or at any rate, the extent of this particular iceberg might have been due to an extra glass of grog on the mate's imagination. We sighted no land during the voyage, except the Peak of Teneriffe, as it emerged above a cloud; and but few vessels, and of those only two closely.
He's too old to run away now, or cut up any more deviltry. Go and talk with him." "What's his bob-wig for?" "Oh, that's some of my mate's nonsense. He thought planters wouldn't want to buy a seaman, so he rigged the old captain up like a schoolmaster, and told him to say that he had always taught arithmetic. He'll tell you he's a schoolmaster, according to the mate's commands; but he isn't.
Quick now! so! over she comes! We'll soon have her baled out." Baling with hats and caps, as we hung round the gunwale, and striking out with a will, to keep the sharks at a distance, we were enabled to clear the boat sufficiently of water to allow us to get in, just as a big shark, impatient of delay, made a dart at the mate's leg for he was the last in and very nearly caught his foot.
Where there were coffee and bacon, he had known children who laughed, women who sang, and men with happy, welcoming faces. They were home-builders. "Whenever you smell coffee and bacon at a cabin," O'Connor had always said, "they'll ask you in to breakfast if you knock at the door." But Kent was not recalling his old trail mate's words.
"The court will determine that, sir. All you'll have to do is to testify to facts." "I'll testify that had I been in the mate's place I'd have hanged you for murder." His eyes positively sparkled. "I'll ask you to remember this conversation when you're under oath, sir," he cried eagerly. I confess the man aroused in me a reluctant admiration. I looked about his mean, iron-walled room.
The mate's boat pulled quickly up, took her in tow, and presently brought her alongside, all her own crew being more or less hurt. It seems the natives had called them into the place on pretence of friendship. A crowd gathered about the stern of the boat, and several fellows even got into her. All of a sudden our men were attacked with clubs and tomahawks.
Going bow-on straight for the mid-stream current, we plied our poles to good advantage. Each man remembered, however, to lift his pole only when his mate's had been planted firmly in the river bottom. Then he would fix his own a little farther ahead and throw all his weight and strength upon it, while at the same moment his companion went the same round.
Bill Blunt rumbled in grinning admiration. The decks were almost awash, and the holds and cabins were full of muddy water, but aboard the Barang there was gratification mixed with the mate's anger, for without a doubt the schooner was shut in as completely as if she were in dry-dock with the gates closed at low tide.
"And a very slim one it is," thought Marcy, as he took the glass from the mate's hand and directed it toward the point where he thought the entrance of the Inlet ought to be. "The cruiser to which this boat belongs can't be far away, and she will come up the minute she hears the roar of the howitzer." "Heave to, or we'll sink you!" came the order, in louder and more emphatic tones.
A few moments more, and Jermin, forced to a compromise, followed after, in his torn frock and scarred face, looking for all the world as if he had just disentangled himself from some intricate piece of machinery. For about half an hour both remained in the cabin, where the mate's rough tones were heard high above the low, smooth voice of the captain.
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