answered O'Gorman. "And now," he continued, "I
suppose you and the lady 'd loike a run ashore, wouldn't ye?"

"Yes, certainly," I answered, "but not to-day. We will wait until
everybody has had time to get completely sober again. I do not choose
that the lady should be subjected to the annoyance of encountering, and
perhaps being insulted by, some half-drunken lout. But you will not
require all the boats, I suppose, so you had better send off the
smallest one, with a pair of oars, that we may have the means of going
to and from the ship and the shore at our own pleasure, and
independently of your people."

This was too much for the fiery temper of the Irishman; genial and
obliging as he had striven to be, it had been clearly apparent to me
that he was growing increasingly restive under the lengthening list of
my demands, and now this cool requisition of a boat was the last straw
that broke the camel's back--or, in other words, exhausted the
Irishman's slender stock of patience; he looked at me with blazing eyes
for a moment, and then rapped out:

"Boat is it, thin? The divil a boat will I let ye have; if ye want a
boat, go ashore and build one for yoursilf. And go to the divil and get
your awning, and your canvas, and your lashings, and your cook, too,
begorra! for sorra a one of anny of thim will ye get from me! I was a
fool to promise ye annything, but I wanted your help, and I thought Oi'd
get it by humourin' ye. But _now_, be jabers, Oi'll _make_ ye help me,
whither ye like it or not; and the divil a thing will I do for ye in
return!"

"What is it you want me to do for you?" asked I quietly, determined to
keep my temper whatever might happen, and curious to know what service
it could possibly be that had caused the fellow to constrain himself so
far in the endeavour to conciliate me.

"I want ye to do this--and, understand me, ye'll _have_ to do it,
whither it plaises ye or not," he answered. "There's a spot somewhere
on that bit of an oiland,"--indicating the small islet opposite which
the brig was moored--"that I want to find. Whin I first read the paper
that speaks of it, it seemed the simplest thing in the worruld to come
here and put me fut on it; but now that Oi'm here, and have seen the
place, by me sowl I can't see or understand how Oi'm to go about it.
And no more can anny of the rest of us. So the long and the short of it
is, misther, that you'll have to find the place for us."

"What do