le beside un. He was keepin' a little green eye on a Yankee
alarm-clock. 'There's another minute gone,' says he, 'an' that's
another dollar. How's the wind? Comin' down at last? Good--that's
good! 'Twon't be long afore that tramp begins t' yelp. Jus' about time
for _me_ t' have a dram o' rum, if I'm t' keep on ridin' easy. Whew!'
says he, when the dram was down, 'there's three more minutes gone, an'
that's three more dollars. Been waitin' all my swilin' life t' squeeze
a tramp; an' now I'm havin' a right good time doin' of it. I got a
expensive son t' fetch up,' says he, 'an' I needs all the money I can
lay my hooks on. There's another minute gone.' He was half-seas-over
now: not foundered--he'd ever a cautious hand with a bottle--but well
smothered. An' I've wondered since--ay, an' many's the time--jus' what
happened up Aloft t' ease off Sam Small's meanness in that hour. He'd
never been mastered afore by rum: that I'll be bound for--an' never
his own rum. 'I got a expensive son t' raise,' says he, 'an' I wants
t' lay my paws on cash. There's another minute gone!' Queer work,
this, o' the A'mighty's: rum had loosed the ol' man's greed beyond
caution; an' there sot he, in liquor, dreamin' dreams, to his death,
for the son of the flaxen girl he'd wronged.

"I stepped outside; but a squall o' soggy wind slapped me in the
face--a gust that tweaked my whiskers--an' I jumped back in a hurry t'
Skipper Sammy's cabin. 'Cap'n Sammy, sir,' says I, 'the gale's down.'

"'The wind,' says he, 'has the habit o' blowin' in March weather.'

"'I don't like it, sir,' says I.

"'Well,' says he, 'I got a young spendthrift t' fetch up, isn't I?'

"'Still an' all, sir,' says I, 'I don't like it.'

"'Damme, Tumm!' says he, 'isn't you got nothin' better t' do than
stand there carpin' at God A'mighty's wind?'

"'They's a big field o' ice t' win'ward, sir,' says I. ''Tis comin'
down with the gale; 'twill ram this pack within the hour.'

"'You stand by,' says he, 't' take a line from that tramp when she
yelps.'

"'Cap'n Sammy, sir,' says I, 'the ship lies badly. She'll never
weather----'

"'Mr. Tumm,' says he, 'you got your orders, isn't you?'

"When Cap'n Sammy fixed his little green squint on me in jus' that
frosty way I knowed my duty. 'I is, sir,' says I.

"'Then,' says he, 'h'ist your canvas. There's another minute gone!'

"By this time the wind was leapin' out o' the nor'west. Fog was come
down with the gale, too. 'Twas falli