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"Who be you, and what be 'e doin' there?" demanded Dyer, dashing across the deck. But he was just too late, for a moment before he reached the rail the sound ceased, and he found nothing. But the horrible odour something between putrid fish and decaying seaweed was stronger than ever. "You, bo's'un, haul up thicky lantern and bring un along here, quick," yelled Dyer.
"Here, Bill!" he called, carrying one to the door. Returning, he blew at the froth on his own pot meditatively. "And the next thing is, I want a house." "A house?" "'Stonishing echo you keep here. . . . Yes, miss, a house. My name's Jope Ben Jope o' the Vesuvius bomb, bo's'un; but paid off at eight this morning.
He would speak to me by the hour in ostentatious idleness; and only if the bo's'un or a mate came by, fell-to languidly for just the necessary time till they were out of sight. "I'm not breaking my heart with it," he remarked.
"We heard tell o' Dick Lynch a-slippin' away to the south'ard jist this minute from little Patsy Burke. Drunk as a bo's'un he was, wid his old swilin'-gun on his shoulder an' the divil's own flare in the eyes o' him. So we hauled out too, skipper, intendin' to catch him afore he come up wid yerself if the saints would give us the luck."
'He's a man anyway, cried Jones in indignation. 'Nobody said he was a woman, said a gruff voice, which I recognised for that of the bo's'un. All this while there was no word of Blackwood or the doctor; and now the officer came to our side of the ship and asked, over the hurricane-deck rails, if the doctor were not yet come. We told him not.
"Drew, the bo's'un, sir," came the answer, with a sharpness in it which effectually prevented its recognition by the two officers upon the poop. There was a note of alarm in the voice, and it was apparent that the men who had been endeavouring to sleep had risen to their feet and were excitedly discussing the phenomenon, for a low murmur of many voices came floating aft from the forecastle.
Consequently, when the bo's'un relieved me at four o'clock this mornin', I didn't pass on any particular caution to him. As a matter of fact I hadn't a notion that we were anywhere near the land! Consequently, when the commotion of haulin' down and clewin' up awoke me, and when, upon rushin' out on deck to see what was the matter, I found that the ship was ashore, I was regularly flabbergasted!
"He's a man anyway," cried Jones in indignation. "Nobody said he was a woman," said a gruff voice, which I recognised for that of the bo's'un. All this while there was no word of Blackwood or the doctor; and now the officer came to our side of the ship and asked, over the hurricane-deck rails, if the doctor were not yet come. We told him not.
At the foot of our own companion, just where I found Blackwood, Jones and the bo's'un were now engaged in talk. This last was a gruff, cruel-looking seaman, who must have passed near half a century upon the seas; square-headed, goat-bearded, with heavy blond eyebrows, and an eye without radiance, but inflexibly steady and hard.
They wouldn't mind if they saw you all lying dead one upon the top of another." This was enough. A very little humanity went a long way with me after the experience of the evening. A sympathy grew up at once between the bo's'un and myself; and that night, and during the next few days, I learned to appreciate him better. He was a remarkable type, and not at all the kind of man you find in books.
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