r, "that is old history. Come
aboard and have breakfast with me."

"All right," said Farquarson, "I'll have a wash up, and then come. But
what a darned funny thing not to blow you up with the mines. I just
said to my mate, they are a lot of lazy beasts, or there's something
wrong with the wires. But the mate said, 'No; he's taken them
unawares.' 'Unawares be d----d!' said I; 'he's not taken these gunboat
chaps unawares, for I couldn't get them to stop firing.'"

"He's off again!" interjected Yaunie.

"All right, all right!" replied the impatient captain to his voluble
compatriot. "Come to breakfast as quick as you can, there's a good
fellow."

Farquarson got to the companion-way--_i.e._ the entrance to the
cabin--and was about to make some further remarks when the captain of
the _Claverhouse_ said to Yaunie, "Let's go below, for God's sake! As
long as he sees us he'll keep on."

When they got into the cabin, the burly pilot was almost inarticulate.
All he could say was--

"My goodness, what a tong! He must be dangerous to his owners. I have
never see such a tong."

In due course the irrepressible person appeared, and was received with
professional cordiality. He had no sooner taken his seat at the table
than he became convulsed with laughter, slapped his hand on the table,
and shouted--

"By Cocker, I'll never forget it! The rage of them Russians, and the
way they blazed away their shot, and it never going within miles of
where you were! Miles, mind you!"

Yaunie and his friend looked at each other in savage despair, as he
persisted in reeling off quantities of disconnected incoherencies. But
relief to his perturbed friends came when the steward placed the
breakfast on the table. He stopped the flow of narration, and
exclaimed--

"Ah! that's what I like--dry hash and a bit of ham with an egg or two.
I was just saying to my mate--who's as big a born fool as ever drank
whisky--there's not a better meal made at sea than dry hash."

By this time his mouth was full, and it was difficult to know what he
wished to convey. His eating was quite as boundless as his talk,
though he could not do both at once. Having finished a good sound
plate of hash, he passed his plate along for some ham and eggs, and
asked his host if he did not observe what a good appetite he had
compared with what he used to have.

"Yes," said the captain, in blissful ignorance of what he was saying.
"Your appetite was never very good. I'm gl