CHAPTER FOUR.
DEATH OF THE SKIPPER.
"Well, Mr Leslie," inquired the mate, "is there any chance of ourcoming at that medicine-chest? To speak plainly, I don't half like thelook of the skipper, and that's a fact. It ain't natural for a man tolie like that, hour a'ter hour, without movin'; and the sooner we canbring him back to his senses, the better I shall be pleased."
"Yes," answered Leslie, "I quite understand how you feel about thematter, and I feel quite as anxious as you do about it; more so,possibly, since it is I who am responsible for the man's condition. Ishall be bitterly grieved if he proves to be seriously injured; but inany case I hope you will understand that it was impossible for me toallow him to retain possession of his revolver. He had clearlyconceived an extraordinary aversion for me, and exhibited it withoutrestraint. I believe that when he fired at me he fully intended to killme, if he could, and I was compelled to act in self-defence. If a manallows his temper to get the better of him to that extent, he must takethe consequences. But here we are," as he threw open the door of MissTrevor's cabin, "and that, I take it, is the medicine-chest;" pointingto a fairly large chest standing against the bulkhead.
"Yes," assented Purchas, "that's the chest. Better have it out of thisinto the main cabin, hadn't we? Then we shan't be obliged to disturbthe lady whenever we want to get at it."
"Certainly," agreed Leslie; "I was about to suggest it."
And therewith the two men seized, each of them, a handle and carried thebox into the main cabin, placing it conveniently for pushing it underthe table, out of the way, when not required. The chest was unlocked,and they threw it open, disclosing an interior fitted with a tray ontop, which contained a long tin tubular case labelled "DiachylonPlaster," surgical scissors, surgical needles, rolls of bandage, andnumerous other surgical instruments and appliances; while, underneaththe tray, the body of the chest was full of jars and bottles containingdrugs, each distinctly labelled, and each fitted into its own specialcompartment. There was also in the chest a book setting forth in detailthe symptoms of nearly every imaginable disease, with its appropriatetreatment, and also the proper course to pursue in the event of injury.The book was furnished with a very complete index, to facilitate promptreference.
This book they took out and laid open upon the cabin table, now spreadwith the breakfast equipage. Anxiously they pored over its pages,finding more than one reference that seemed fairly to fit the case; andat length Leslie, to whose judgment the mate seemed disposed to defer,decided upon a treatment, which they proceeded forthwith to act upon.It consisted in the administration of a draught, and the application ofa blister; and owing to the absolute insensibility of the skipper andhis consequent powerlessness to assist in any way it was a somewhatlengthy job; but they completed it at last, and then went to breakfast.
As it was not expected that any visible result of their treatment wouldbecome apparent for the first hour or so, they did not visit the skipperat the conclusion of the meal; but Purchas went to his cabin and turnedin, leaving Leslie in charge of the deck--the latter undertaking to callthe mate at seven bells, in time to take the meridian altitude of thesun at noon, for the determination of the brig's latitude.
During the time that Leslie had been occupied below he had beenconscious of the fact that the breeze was freshening, as was evidencedby the increasing heel of the brig and her growing liveliness ofmovement; and when at length he went on deck and relieved the carpenter,who had been temporarily in charge, he found quite a smart breezeblowing from about due east, and the brig, with her weather-bracesslightly checked, and everything set, to her royals, staggering along,with a great deal of fuss and much churning up of water about her bluffbows, at a speed of some six knots. He glanced aloft and saw that hertopgallant-masts were whipping and buckling like fishing-rods.
"Hillo, Chips," he said good-humouredly, "so you are one of thecarrying-on school, I see. But what about those sticks aloft; aren'tyou trying them rather severely? Of course you ought to know theircondition better than I do; but it looks to me as though you are givingthem rather more than they ought to be asked to do."
"Oh, they're goodish sticks, sir, are them topgallant-masts, and theskipper's a rare hand for carryin' on; she ain't no clipper, as I daresay you've noticed, sir; but the cap'n makes a p'int of gettin' everyinch out of her as she's capable of doin' of. All the same, sir, Ibelieve it's about time them royals was took in."
"So do I," agreed Leslie, as a somewhat fresher puff took the brig andcaused the spars to buckle still more ominously. "Royal halliards, letgo! Clew up and furl!" he shouted to the men who were lounging on theforecastle over some tasks that they were performing in the leisurelymanner usual with merchant seamen.
The carpenter sprang to the main royal halliards and let them run; a manforward dropped the serving-mallet that he was using, and did the samewith the fore royal halliards; and while two other hands started thesheets and began to drag upon the clewlines, a third shambled aft andhelped the carpenter to clew up the main royal.
This relieved the brig a trifle; but there was a hard look about the skyto windward that promised still more wind; so Leslie said--
"The breeze is coming still stronger before long, Chips; you hadtherefore better make one job of it, and take in the topgallantsails aswell. And when that is done, if the men are not better engaged, letthem get to work and set up the topgallant and royal rigging fore andaft; it is shockingly slack--hanging fairly in bights, in fact--and isaffording practically no support to the spars."
"Ay, ay, sir!" answered the carpenter, who was acting also as boatswain."I've had my eye on that riggin' for the last day or two; it wantssettin' up badly, and I'll attend to it at once."
The men had got the canvas clewed up, and were aloft furling it whenMiss Trevor emerged through the companion-way; and Leslie, with a wordof greeting, hastened to arrange a deck-chair for her accommodation onthe lee side of the deck, within the shadow of the main trysail; foralthough there was a slight veil of thin, streaky cloud overspreadingthe sky, the sun shone through it with an ardour that made shelter ofsome sort from it very acceptable, especially to a girl who might besupposed to set some value upon her complexion. She accepted Leslie'sattentions with a brief word or two of thanks, uttered in tones thatsuggested an inclination to revert to her former unapproachableattitude; and the ex-lieutenant at once left her to herself, passingover to the weather side of the deck and devoting himself strictly tohis duties as officer of the watch.
At seven bells he called Purchas, who presently made his appearance ondeck, with an old-fashioned quadrant in his hand. He looked aloft, andthen to windward, noted the changes that Leslie had affected, andgraciously expressed his approval of them. Then he said--
"I s'pose, Mr Leslie, you're a first-class navigator and know all aboutshootin' the sun?"
"Naturally, I do," answered Leslie; "navigation is, of course, anessential part of the education and training of a naval officer; and Ilearned all in that line that they thought it necessary to teach me agood many years ago."
"Ay, so I supposed," returned Purchas. "As for me, I've learned whatwas required to enable me to get my certificate; but, after all, I don'treally understand it properly. I can take the sun at noon, of course,and work out the ship's latitood; but, even at that, I've got no verygreat faith in myself; and as to the longitood--well, there; I alwaysfeels that I may be right or I may be wrong. I never was much of a handat figures. So, if you've no objections, I'd take it very kind of youif you'd lend me a hand at this job while the skipper's on hisbeam-ends. He's got a real dandy sextant in his cabin that I'll take itupon me to let you have the use of; and the chronometer's in there too.We might as well have them things out of there too, then we shan't haveto disturb the young lady every time we wants 'em."
Leslie quite agreed as to the desirability of this, and he alsocheerfully undertook to check and assist Purchas in his navigation. Thelatter therefore went below to make the necessary transfe
r, andpresently returned to the deck, carrying Potter's sextant--a veryhandsome and valuable instrument--in his hand. This he handed toLeslie; and as the time was now drawing well on towards noon, the twomen betook themselves to the forecastle--the sun being over the jib-boomend--and proceeded to take the meridian altitude of the luminary. Thisdone, "eight bells" was struck, the watch called, and Leslie and themate returned aft to work out their calculations. As a result, thereproved to be a difference of two miles between them; nothing veryserious, but enough to prove that Purchas's doubts of himself were fullyjustified.
Upon being called by Leslie, the mate had looked in upon Potter for amoment on his way up on deck, but had failed to discover any improvementin his condition. He now suggested that they should both go below andsubject their patient to a closer examination--which they did.
As Purchas had already remarked, there was no apparent improvement inPotter's condition; on the contrary, when Leslie felt his pulse itseemed to him that it was weaker. This, however, might be accounted forby the fact that the man had taken no nourishment from the moment thathe had sustained his injury, and owing to his absolute helplessness, itseemed impossible to administer any to him. A further study of the bookof directions accompanying the medicine-chest, however, instructed themhow to overcome this difficulty; and, summoning the steward, the mateforthwith gave him instructions to kill a chicken and have some brothprepared as quickly as possible. Meanwhile the blister was snipped anddressed, another dose of medicine administered, with considerabledifficulty, and the man was once more left to himself, theself-constituted physicians having then done all, for the moment, thatwas possible.
"I wish something big would come along--a man-o'-war, for instance,"observed Leslie, as he and the mate left the cabin together; "we couldthen signal for medical assistance. A properly qualified doctor couldsoon say precisely what is wrong, and what would be the proper treatmentto adopt. And if the case is really serious--as, to be frank with you,Purchas, I am beginning to fear it is--we might even trans-ship him, andthus give him the best chance possible for his life. You, of course, insuch an event, would fully report all the circumstances of the case, andI should accompany the man to the other ship, to take the responsibilityfor whatever might happen. And Miss Trevor would go with me, since she,of course, now wishes to return home--failing an opportunity to continueher voyage to Australia or India--as soon as possible. What do youthink of my plan?"
"Why," answered Purchas, "it seems a good enough plan, so far as itgoes. And if that there ship that you're talkin' about could spare me anavigator to help me take the brig to Valparaiso, why, I'd be perfectlysatisfied. But there don't seem to be much chance of our fallin' inwith nothin'; we haven't spoke a single craft of any sort this side ofFinisterre."
"The greater the likelihood of our doing so soon," remarked Leslie. "Itmay be quite worth while to keep an especially bright look-out, with aview to the intercepting of anything that may happen to heave in sight."
On board small craft of the _Mermaid_ type it is usual to have dinnerserved in the cabin at midday; and accordingly, the steward havingalready announced that the meal was on the table, and summoned MissTrevor, Leslie and Purchas entered the cabin and proceeded to dine. Itwas Leslie's afternoon watch below and his eight hours out that night,so he decided to lie down on the cabin lockers and get an hour or two'ssleep after he had smoked his pipe on deck. Before doing so, however,he went forward to the galley to inquire how the chicken broth wasprogressing, and finding that it was ready, he took it aft, and, on hisway below, requested Purchas to accompany him, and assist him toadminister it.
The two men entered the cabin together, and stepped to the side of thebunk. The figure of Potter still lay exactly as they had left him; butas Leslie stood for a moment gazing, he gradually became aware that asubtle change in the man's appearance had taken place; through theswarthy tints of the sunburnt complexion an ashen grey hue seemed tohave spread. He bent closer, and laid his hand upon the wrist, feelingfor the pulse. There was no beat perceptible. He moistened the back ofhis hand and laid it close to the lips, waiting anxiously to feel thebreath playing upon the moistened skin. He could detect nothing. Thenhe laid his hand upon the man's chest, over his heart. The chest hadceased to heave; and there was not the faintest throb of the heart, sofar as he could feel. Finally, he snatched a small mirror from the nailon which it was hanging, and laid it gently, face downward, on Potter'smouth. He left it there for fully two minutes; and when at length helifted it again its surface was still bright and undimmed as before. Hecarefully hung the mirror upon its nail again, and, turning to the mate,said--
"Mr Purchas, I regret to inform you that Captain Potter is dead!"
"Dead!" ejaculated Purchas. "No, no; he can't _be_! there must be somemistake."
"I very greatly fear that there is _no_ mistake about it," returnedLeslie. "I have seen death, in my time, too often not to recognise it.You will observe that breathing has ceased; neither can I find any traceof a pulse, or the slightest flutter of the heart-beat. All thesesymptoms are, I believe, quite consistent with a state of trance; and,remembering that, we must of course be careful to do nothingprecipitately. But I am convinced that the man is really dead--a veryshort time will suffice, in this climate, to demonstrate whether or notthat is the case--and I would advise you to give immediate instructionsto have the necessary preparations made for his burial. Should mysurmise prove correct, you are now the master of this brig; and as suchyou will of course adopt such measures with regard to me, as theimmediate cause of this misfortune, as you may deem fit. But there isno necessity to put me in irons; I cannot very well escape."
"Put you in irons!" ejaculated Purchas; "I should think not. No, MrLeslie, you had no intention of killin' the skipper; I'll swear to that.It was an accident; neither more nor less. How was you to know that agreat strong man, like he was, was goin' to stagger back and hit hishead again' the rail, same as he did? And he provoked you; all hands'll bear witness to that; he shot at ye, and you was quite justified intakin' his revolver away from him. Oh no, there'll be no puttin' of youin irons so long as I'm skipper o' this brig. But of course I shallhave to make a hentry of the whole affair in the official log-book; andnow you'll have to go on with the brig to Valparaiso, whether or no, tohear what the British Consul there have got to say about it."
"Certainly," assented Leslie, "I shall make no difficulty about that.And I have not very much fear as to the result. But, as to Miss Trevor,I hope you will seize the first suitable opportunity that occurs totrans-ship her. She, poor girl, will now be more anxious than ever toget away from this vessel."
"Yes, yes; of course she will," agreed Purchas. "And I suppose, MrLeslie," he continued, "you won't have any objections to continuelending me a hand to work and navigate this brig? Now that theskipper's gone I shall need help more'n ever."
"You may rely upon me, Mr Purchas, to do everything in my power to helpyou," answered Leslie. "And now," he continued, "while you are makingthe arrangements of which I just now spoke, I will go on deck and makeMiss Trevor acquainted with the news of our misfortune."
Miss Trevor received the news of Potter's demise with a few expressionsof well-bred regret, but she did not appear to be very greatly concernedat the event. It could scarcely be otherwise. In the first place, shehad only been in the man's company a very few hours; and although he hadcertainly picked her and Leslie up--thus saving them in all probabilityfrom a lingering and painful death--he could scarcely have actedotherwise, seeing that he had nothing to do but give orders for a fewrope's ends to be dropped over the side to them. Then, although she hadgiven no sign of it, his manner toward her had been such as to fill herwith vague fear; while his behaviour toward Leslie, when that individualhad unavailingly attempted to convince him of the presence of anothersurvivor upon the floating wreckage, was scarcely of a kind to inspire awoman with confidence or respect.
By eight bells in the afternoon watch there was no lo
nger room for doubtthat Potter was really dead; and this being the case, Purchas verywisely decided to bury the body at once, and get rid of it. At hissummons, therefore, the carpenter and another man came aft with a squareof canvas, palm, needle, and twine to sew up the body, and a shortlength of rusty chain--routed out from the fore-peak--wherewith to sinkit. Meanwhile the brig's ensign was hoisted half-mast high, and the menwere ordered to "clean" themselves in readiness for the funeral--allwork being knocked off for the remainder of the day. Upon beingapprised of what was about to take place, Miss Trevor retired to hercabin.
The process of sewing up the body and preparing it for burial occupiedabout half an hour, by which time the men were all ready. MeanwhileLeslie had been coaching Purchas--who frankly confessed his ignorance--as to the part he was to perform; it being of course his duty, as masterof the ship, to read the burial service.
The carpenter having reported that the body was ready, two more men cameaft, bearing with them a grating which they laid down on the deckalongside the companion. They then descended to the berth wherein thedead man lay and, assisted by the carpenter and the man who had helpedto sew up the body in its canvas shroud, carried the corpse, with somedifficulty--owing to its weight, and the cramped dimensions of the berthand the companion-way--up on deck, where it was laid upon the grating,and a spare ensign spread over it as a pall. Then the four men raisedthe grating and its burden to their shoulders, and with Purchas in frontreading the burial service, and Leslie following behind, all, of course,uncovered, the little procession moved slowly along the deck to the leegangway, where the rest of the crew, also uncovered, awaited it.Arrived at the gangway, the grating was laid upon the rail, with thefeet of the body pointing outboard; the carpenter and his assistantsupporting the inner end of the grating.
Shorn though the ceremony necessarily was of most of the solemnformalism that characterises an interment ashore, and further marred inits effectiveness by the droning tones in which Purchas deemed it properto read the beautiful and solemn words of the prescribed ritual, it was,nevertheless, profoundly impressive, the peculiar circumstances of thecase, and the setting of the picture, so to speak--the small brig outthere alone upon the boundless world of waters, the little group ofweather-beaten bare-headed men surrounding the stark and silent figureupon the grating, who a few brief hours before had been the head andchief of their small community; the man to whose knowledge and skillthey had willingly committed their fortunes and themselves, who hadruled them as with a rod of iron, whose will was their law, who had heldtheir very lives in his hands, at whose caprice they were either happyor miserable, and who now lay there without the power to move so much asa finger either to help or hurt them, and whose lifeless clay they wereabout to launch to its last resting-place, there to repose "till the seagives up her dead,"--this, with the wailing moan of the wind aloft, thesobbing of the water alongside, and the solemn glory of the dying dayall uniting to imbue the scene and the occasion with a profundity ofsadness and a sublimity that would have been impossible under othercircumstances. And so deeply was Leslie moved by it that, for the firsttime since the words of his cruel and unjust sentence had fallen uponhis ears, he once more felt, to conviction, that God the Creator, Godthe Ordainer, God the Father was and must be an ever-living andomnipotent entity. And for the first time, also, since then he followedthe prayers that Purchas droned out with an earnest and heartfeltsincerity at which he felt himself vaguely astonished.
At length the mate reached the words in the service, "we thereforecommit his body to the deep," whereupon the two men who supported theinner end of the grating tilted it high, and the heavily weighted body,sliding out from beneath the outspread ensign, plunged with a sullensplash into its lonely grave. The remainder of the service was quicklygone through; and as the little party of mourners rose from their kneeswith the pronouncement of the last "Amen," the sun's disc vanished in ablaze of indescribable glory beneath the horizon, while at the samemoment "four bells" pealed out along the brig's deck.
"Go for'ard, men," ordered Purchas, replacing his cap upon his head;"and see that that gratin' is stowed away again in its proper place.Haul down that ensign, one of you. And whose trick at the wheel is it?"
For the next three or four days nothing worthy of mention occurred onboard the brig, save that the breeze which had sprung up on the morningof the day of Potter's death held good, and ran them fairly into theTrades. Our next vision of the _Mermaid_, therefore, shows her bruisingalong under all plain sail, including fore and main royals, togetherwith port topgallant and topmast studding-sails on the main, and topmastand lower studding-sails on the foremast; the rigging having in theinterim been properly set up, so that the brig could carry that amountof canvas without jeopardy to her spars.
The death and burial of the late skipper had permitted of a certainmodification of arrangements aft. Thus, while Miss Trevor was, byPurchas's natural courtesy, allowed to retain possession of the latePotter's cabin, as the best and most commodious berth in the brig,Purchas had transferred the chronometer, charts and other paraphernaliaappertaining to the navigation of the brig, to his own cabin, which heonce more occupied; Leslie moving from the longboat into the steward'scabin, now vacated by Purchas. With the permission of the latter, also,Leslie had appropriated to his own use Potter's somewhat extensive kit--the two men being much of a size, although Potter had been ofconsiderably stouter build. This, of course, conduced greatly toLeslie's comfort, as it afforded him, among other advantages, amuch-needed change of linen; although the ex-lieutenant did not assumepossession of these articles without certain inward qualms that, underthe circumstances, were not to be wondered at.
Then it presently transpired that Potter--who had possessed a shrewd eyefor a money-making speculation--had, before leaving London, invested aconsiderable sum in articles of various kinds that he knew, fromexperience, he would be able to dispose of at a huge profit, upon hisarrival at Valparaiso; and among these there happened to be a capaciouscase of ladies' clothing. This case Leslie also commandeered, giving toPurchas, in exchange, a signed agreement to pay to Potter's heirs,executors, or assigns--if such could be found upon their return toEngland--the full value of the goods, as well as of the clothing thatLeslie had appropriated to his own use. This case of clothing, togetherwith the other goods included in the speculation, were, as Purchashappened to know, stowed in the after hold, on top of the cargo; Leslietherefore lost no time in having the hatches lifted and the case hoistedon deck, and opened. Then he summoned Miss Trevor upon the scene, andinvited her to overhaul the case and help herself freely to the whole orsuch part of the contents as she might find of service to her; with theresult that the lady soon found herself in possession of an ample ifsomewhat showy wardrobe, to her infinite comfort and contentment.
During the whole of this time, it may be remarked, not a single sail ofany description had been sighted; although Leslie, keenly anxious tomeet the wishes of Miss Trevor in the matter of trans-shipment, hadcaused a bright look-out for ships to be maintained throughout both dayand night.
A week, or maybe rather more than that, had elapsed since Potter's deathwhen Leslie discovered what appeared to him a fresh cause for theapprehension of future trouble. It was Purchas who this time gave riseto the apprehension. The fellow had, from the moment when Leslie andMiss Trevor first came aboard the brig, been exceedingly civil andobliging to them both, cheerfully doing everything that lay in his powerto make them comfortable. It is true that, perhaps in return for this,he had not hesitated to invoke Leslie's assistance in the matter ofnavigating the brig, and standing a watch--in fact, performing theduties of a mate; but this, under the circumstances, was perfectlynatural, and quite in accord with Leslie's own inclination.
But later, within a few days of Potter's death, indeed, Leslie thoughthe detected in Purchas an inclination to shirk some of the moreimportant duties of the ship, such as the navigation of her, forinstance, and relegate them entirely to him. Even this, however, didno
t greatly worry Leslie. In any case, he always took the necessaryobservations for the determination of the brig's latitude and longitude,independently of Purchas; and whether the latter checked hisobservations or not was a matter of indifference to him, since he hadthe fullest confidence in the accuracy of his own work--a confidence,indeed, that Purchas appeared to fully share, since, in the event of anydiscrepancy between them, the new skipper always accepted Leslie'sresults in preference to his own. This, however, was not the chiefcause of Leslie's disquietude, which arose from the fact that on morethan one occasion, when it had been his "eight hours out," he hadnoticed, when calling Purchas at midnight, that the latter's breath hadsmelt strongly of rum, and that the man, upon taking the deck, hadappeared to be strongly under the influence of drink. So markedly,indeed, was this the case upon a recent occasion that Leslie had taxedhim with it.
"Look here, Mr Purchas," he had remarked, "you have been mixing your`nightcap' too strong to-night, and are scarcely in a fit condition tohave charge of the brig. Go below and sleep it off. I will take yourwatch for you, with pleasure."
"Oh, will you?" Purchas had retorted disagreeably. "Le' me tell you,shir, tha' you'll do nothin' o' short; I'm qui' cap'le lookin' afterthi' ship or any other ship that ever was built; and I won' have you orany other man tryin' take my charac'er away. You go b'low an' leave me'lone. D'ye hear?"
Seeing at once that the man was in much too quarrelsome a condition tobe satisfactorily reasoned with, Leslie had at once left him and gonebelow; only to return, however, within the next ten minutes to findPurchas stretched at full length upon a hencoop, fast asleep and snoringstertorously.
On the morning following this incident Leslie, finding the skipper oncemore sober and, as usual under those circumstances, quite genial andfriendly, tackled him again upon the subject.
"I want to talk to you very seriously, Purchas," he said, as the twowalked the weather side of the deck together, smoking, after breakfast."You are now the skipper of this brig, you know; and, as such, areaccountable to nobody but your owners for your conduct. But this, as Ihave understood you to say, is your first command; and whether youretain it or not after the termination of this voyage must necessarilydepend to a very great extent upon your behaviour _now_. Insobriety is,as I need hardly tell you, the one unpardonable sin in the eyes of ashipowner. No man will knowingly entrust his property to the care ofanother who, even only occasionally, permits himself to take too muchliquor, because he can never know just when that overdose may be taken.He is always ready to believe that it may be imbibed at the mostinopportune moment, and that the master of his ship may be under itsinfluence at the precise instant when the safety of the ship, crew, andcargo demand his utmost vigilance and most intelligent resource. Andalthough you may imagine that what you do out here in mid-ocean cannotpossibly reach the ears of your owner, you must not forget that sailorshave a keen eye for what goes on aft; a skipper cannot get drunk withoutthe fact reaching the sharp ears of those in the forecastle. It is oneof the easiest things in the world for an officer to acquire, among hiscrew, a reputation for insobriety; and, once they get ashore, you maytrust them to talk about it freely, very often adding embellishments oftheir own. The reputation of a ship-master is in the hands of his crew;and if he is foolish enough to afford them the opportunity, they may bedepended upon to ruin it for him. Besides, I want you to remember yourresponsibilities as master of this brig. I will undertake to look afterher and see that nothing goes wrong during the time that I have chargeof the deck; but I cannot _always_ be on deck, you know; and if youshould happen to be intoxicated and incapable--as you were last night--while I am below, what would be the result of a sudden squall, forinstance? Or how is the craft to be kept clear of possible collision ona dark and dirty night? There are a thousand sudden emergenciesconstantly threatening the seaman, any one of which may arise at amoment's notice."
"Yes, yes," answered Purchas, somewhat impatiently; "I know all aboutthat. I've heard it all a thousand times before; heard it until I'msick of it. But there's no call to make a fuss about it; I own up thatI was just a little bit `sprung' last night; but what of it? The nightwas fine and clear, the `glass' was steady, and there wasn't nothin'anywheres within sight of us; so where was the danger?"
"There was none, as it fortunately happened," admitted Leslie. "But whois to know what will occur within the limits of a four-hours' watch?Suppose, for instance, that I had not chanced to notice your condition,and had turned in; and that while you were lying unconscious upon thathencoop a sudden squall had struck the brig, what would have happened?Why, the craft might have been dismasted, or even, perhaps, capsized!And where should we all have been, in that case?"
"Well, ye see, we warn't dismasted, let alone capsized, so there's noharm done," answered Purchas, testily. "All the same," he added, inmore moderate tones, "I'm willin' to admit that there's a good deal ofreason in your argufication, so I'll go slow in future; I don't say thatI won't take a glass or so of grog of an evenin' if I feels to want it;but I'll take care not to swaller enough of it to capsize me again."
"You would do far better to swear off it altogether," asserted Leslie."You would be glad, afterwards, that you had done so. You are anexcellent seaman; and I shall be more than glad to help you to perfectyourself in navigation, if you will allow me, so that there should benothing to stand in the way of your getting your master's certificateupon your return to England. And with that, and a reputation forreliability such as you can acquire during this voyage, there should benothing to prevent your continuing in the command of this brig, or evenof your getting something very much better. And now, I think, it isabout time for us to get our sights for the longitude."