instead of at the moment when he was under the influence of the liquor.
Therefore I said nothing to him beyond briefly enquiring how many holes
he had bored in the ship, and where, and suggesting to him the
advisability of retiring to his bunk to sleep for an hour or two, which
advice he seemed more than half-inclined to resent, but ultimately
followed, in a somewhat belligerent mood.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

EMBAYED.

It soon became perfectly evident that, muddled with drink though he
undoubtedly was, Chips had very effectively executed his work of
destruction aboard the _Braave_, for in half an hour she had sunk to the
extent of very nearly three strakes of her planking, and within the hour
she had brought her chain-plate bolts flush with the water, at which
rate another three hours should suffice to see the last of her. Before
that moment arrived, however, a little air of wind came along out from
the westward, and, with our port braces slightly checked, we began to
creep away on a nor'-nor'-east course for Boeroe Strait. But our
progress was so slow that at noon the derelict was still hull-up to the
southward, sunk to the level of her covering-board; and when, after
dinner, I returned to the poop and took the glass to search for her, she
was nowhere to be seen, although, had she still been afloat, her spars
and canvas at least should have been visible above the horizon.

Although the _Braave_ had vanished, she had left behind her a small
legacy of annoyance for me; for while I was still searching the horizon
for some sign of her continued existence I became aware of certain
raucous sounds issuing from the forecastle, which I was quickly able to
identify as the maudlin singing which seamen are so prone to indulge in
when they are the worse for liquor. Presently Polson, who had gone
forward to turn-to the watch after dinner, came aft with an expression
of vexation upon his weather-beaten countenance, and explained that the
carpenter's boat's crew, having smuggled aboard several bottles of
Schiedam from the scuttled vessel, all hands forward had become just
sufficiently fuddled to render them indifferent to such authority as,
under the peculiar circumstances of the case, we were still able to
exercise over them, and had flatly refused to come on deck, declaring,
with much abuse of the boatswain, that they did not intend to do any
more work until they had finished the drink which still remained.

"How much have they