, "Fight
manfully onward," and he determined that he would not give up so soon.
He stopped coughing and pulled again at the pipe; this time he did not
swallow the smoke, but blew it out of his mouth as he had seen it done a
thousand times. He gave another pull, and blew the smoke out again; it
did indeed taste like brown sugar; it was extremely pleasant; he puffed
again and again. He was astonished that he could have produced so much
smoke in a few whiffs; there was quite a cloud over his head. He gave
another puff, and when he blew out the smoke the white cloud above him
was so thick that he could not see through it. It began to settle down
on him. He put the Chinaman's head on the floor, and looked up into this
cloud.

It was growing thicker and thicker, and it was beginning to churn about
as if in a whirlwind; it turned all sorts of colours, mostly yellow and
green, and parts of it looked like barber's poles revolving at a
terrific speed. He became dizzy as he gazed at it; his head began to
swim; the cloud was coming down closer and closer upon him, and whirling
about more and more wildly; he crouched down lower, and became dizzier
and dizzier. The counter and the shelves began to go round and round, so
that he had to put his hand on the floor to steady himself; in another
moment the shop disappeared altogether, and there was nothing under him
but a little square of floor, and nothing over him but the wild,
churning cloud, now sparkling with jets of fire. He felt himself
falling, falling, and as he came to the bottom with a crash, he heard
the shop door open and close, and found himself sitting on the floor
with his back to the counter as before, with no smoke anywhere to be
seen; and he was aware that a hoarse voice was speaking on the other
side of the counter, and it was saying these words, very loud and brisk:

"Avast, there! Belay that piping! All snug, sir, hatches battened down,
makin' way under skysails and royals, hands piped to quarters, and
here's your humble servant ready for orders! Shiver my timbers, where's
the skipper? Piped me up with a 'baccy pipe, he did, and where's he
gone? Skipper ahoy! Come for orders, I be, and ever yours to command,
Lemuel Mizzen! That's me!"

Freddie put the pipe down on the floor, rose to his feet, and looked
over the counter.

Leaning on his elbow on the other side of the counter was a Sailorman,
with a wide blue collar open at the throat, a flat blue cap with a black