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"All these people want something to eat, Sopsy. Let the crew eat in the deck-house for'ad, and bring a lunch into the cabin right off," continued Captain Sullendine. "Yis, sar," replied the cook with emphasis. "Git 'em quicker'n a man kin swaller his own head. Libes dar a man wid soul so dead" "Never mind the varse, Sopsy," interposed the captain. " As never to hisself have said"
"I s'pose she's gwine dar if she don't go to dat boon where no trab'lers come back agin," answered Sopsy seriously. "Be you Meth'dis' o' Bab'tis', Massa Mate?" "Both, Sopsy." "Can't be bof, Massa." "Then I'm either one you like." "That ain't right, Massa Secon' Mate, 'cordin' as you was brung up," said the cook, shaking his head violently, as though he utterly disapproved of the mate's theology.
"I'm a theosophist, Sopsy." "A seehossofist!" exclaimed the cook, dropping a plate in his astonishment. "We don't hab none o' dem on shore in de Souf. I reckon dey libs in de water." "No; they live on the mountains."
"I let him out then, and his first move was to get at his whiskey; but the door was locked. He begged like a child for a drink; but I did not give him a drop. Sopsy and Bokes, who were tied up forward, did the same; but they did not get any. Captain Sullendine ate his breakfast, and I told him his vessel was a prize to the United States steamer Bellevite.
"Hurry up, Sopsy!" "He don't say dat, Massa Cap'n," added the cook, as he shuffled off over the bales of cotton. "Hullo there, Bokes! Where are you, Bokes?" called the captain again. "On deck, Cap'n," replied a white man, crawling out from a small opening in the bales. "Wake up, Bokes! You ain't dead yet."
"I will look after him at once, sir," answered Graines, as he leaped upon the cotton bales and made his way to the quarter-deck. On the way he examined the condition of Sopsy, and found him snoring like a roaring lion, in an uneasy position.
I gave one of the bottles of apple-jack the captain sent forward for them to Bokes, and poured the contents of the other into Mobile Bay. I think we had better go forward and look the vessel over," said Christy. They had gone but a few steps before they stumbled over the body of Sopsy, who had evidently succumbed to the quantity of firewater he had consumed.
Balker," said Captain Sullendine when the party reached the quarter-deck; and he was so lively in his movements, and so glib in his speech, as to provoke the suspicion that he had imbibed again at the conclusion of his oration on shore. "Here, you, Sopsy!" he continued in a loud voice.
As they moved towards the companion, they saw Sopsy creep over to the alley where Bokes had been sleeping, and take up the bottle of apple-jack Christy had given him, and drink from it. It was evident to them that the cook could not be much longer in condition for any duty. The two mates went below as invited, and found the captain at the table.
"I shall not do that, but I will compromise the matter by sending you to Mobile Point, as I have no further use for you," replied the commander. "You are a non-combatant, and not a prisoner of war." French was ordered to leave Captain Sullendine, Bokes, and Sopsy at the shore where the whaleboat had made a landing, as soon as it was dark.
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