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The endless ballad had come to an end at last, and the whole diminished company about the camp-fire had broken into the chorus I had heard so often: "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

Often I have heard the house shaking with "Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum," all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark.

"It is horrid fun," he wrote, "and begins in the Admiral Benbow public house on the Devon coast; all about a map and a treasure and a mutiny, and a derelict ship ... and a doctor and a sea-cook with one leg with the chorus 'yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, ... No women in the story, Lloyd orders."

I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards: "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars.

"Ay, ay, mates," said Long John, who was standing by, with his crutch under his arm, and at once broke out in the air and words I knew so well: "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest" And then the whole crew bore chorus: "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" And at the third "ho!" drove the bars before them with a will.

"Ay, ay, mates," said Long John, who was standing by, with his crutch under his arm, and at once broke out in the air and words I knew so well "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest" and then the whole crew bore chorus "Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" And at the third "ho!" drove the bars before them with a will.

I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards: "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars.

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" to be that identical big box of his up-stairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man.

"There be worse trades," said old Adelbert, whose hand was now against every man. "And hide treasure," Bobby went on. "In a in a cave, you know. Did you ever read 'Treasure Island'?" "I may have forgotten it. I have read many things." "You'd hardly forget it. You know 'Fifteen men on a dead man's chest Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum."