sed
crew--" began Fleetword.

"Above there!" sung out a little one-eyed seaman, squinting up at our
friend, and poising a long lath so as to arrest his attention by a smart
blow across the knees, which made the poor man elevate first one limb
and then the other, in what soldiers term 'double quick time.' "Keep a
civil tongue in your head," he added, threatening to renew the salute.

"For shame, Tom o' Coventry," said Springall, who had more generosity in
his nature; "if you don't behave, I'll spit ye as neatly as ever
top-mast studding sail was spitted on the broken stump of a boom in a
smart gale,--d'ye hear that, master officer--that was--but is not?"

This insult could not be received quietly, because it was deserved, and
the diminutive sailor applied the weapon to Master Springall's shins, so
as to set his hot blood raving for encounter. Fleetword heeded not this,
but rejoicing sincerely in any event that gave him opportunity of
speech, proceeded to anathematize the whole assembly as confidently as
if he had been the pope's legate. Roupall, having finished his
investigation of Fleetword's pockets, advanced one step, and, taking Tom
o' Coventry by the collar, shook him and Springall apart as if they had
been two puppy dogs, while the others bawled loudly for fair play. At
this instant the door opened, and Dalton strode into the midst of them
with that lordly step and dignified aspect he could so well, not only
assume, but preserve; even Fleetword was silenced, when the Skipper,
turning to him, demanded how he came there, and if he had forgotten that
a dying woman had solicited his aid.

"Of a truth," he replied, "I mistook the apartment: ye cannot suppose,
most worthy commander of this enchanted and impish conservatory, that,
of my own free will, I would choose such company. Where is the
sinner?"--Dalton desired Springall to show him to the room of Mother
Hays.

The Buccaneer offered no comment on the fray, for he had often observed
that little good arises from lecturing people for their faults at the
very time you want their services. He explained to them briefly but
fully, and with as much clearness and wisdom as if he had been for hours
in deliberation, the danger by which they were encompassed; the more
than fear for their ship--that they themselves were in the most perilous
situation they had ever experienced, clogged by the land, and not free
on the sea: that as the evening was fast closing in, and the moo