nd then at one another, and caught one another's meaning by
the eye; but they said nothing. `I'll have no hand in it,' at last says
one, and walked away. `Nor I,' said another, and walked away too. At
last all of them walked away except eight, and then Bill Short walks up
to the breaker and says--

"`I won't have no _hand_ in it, either;' but he gave the breaker a kick,
which rolls it away two or three yards from the door.

"`Nor more will I,' said Holmes, giving the breaker another kick, which
rolled it out in the road. So they all went on, without having a _hand_
in it, sure enough, till they had kicked the breaker down the hill to
the beach. Then they were at a dead stand, as no one would spile the
breaker. At last a black carpenter came by, and they offered him a
glass if he would bore a hole with his gimlet, for they were determined
to be able to swear, every one of them; that they had _no hand in it_.
Well, as soon as the hole was bored, one of them borrowed a couple of
little mugs from a black woman, who sold beer, and then they let it run,
the black carpenter shoving one mug under as soon as the other was full,
and they drinking as fast as they could. Before they had half finished,
more of the liberty men came down; I suppose they scented the good stuff
from above as a shark does anything in the water, and they soon made a
finish of it; and when it was all finished, they were all drunk, and
made sail for a cruise, that they might not be found too near the empty
breaker. Well, a little before sunset I was sent on shore with the boat
to fetch off the liberty men, and the purser takes this opportunity of
getting ashore to see his madam, and the first thing he falls athwart of
is his own empty breaker.

"`How's this?' says he; `didn't you take this breaker up as I ordered
you?'

"`Yes, sir,' replied I, `I did, and gave it in charge to the little back
thing; but madam was asleep, and the girl did not allow me to put it
inside the door.' At that he began to storm, and swore that he'd find
out the malefactors, as he termed the liberty men, who had emptied his
breaker; and away he went to the house. As soon as he was gone we got
hold of the breaker, and made a _bull_ of it."

"How did you manage that?" inquired I.

"Why, Jacob, a _bull_ means putting a quart or two of water into a cask
which has had spirits in it; and what with the little that may be left,
and what has soaked in the wood, if you roll it