e felt almost certain; though his pride would
not allow him to suppose that any one, knowing the armament of the
_Zodiac_, would attempt to attack her openly. At the same time this was
an additional object of anxiety, and would require caution.

The watch, with bare feet, and trousers tucked up to their knees, with
buckets in their hands, were employed in washing decks, and as they
splashed the water along the planks, and up the inner sides of the
bulwarks, they laughed and jested in very buoyancy of spirits; and
played off on each other various little practical jokes, which the
presence of the second mate, who superintended and aided in the
operation, alone prevented from being of a more boisterous character.

The poop deck, where the captain was walking, had already been washed,
and the people were now in the waist, and were giving a few more
vehement splashes before moving further forward, when Colonel Gauntlett,
in his forage cap, a richly flowered dressing-gown, and Turkish
slippers, made his appearance at the companion hatch, very nearly
receiving a copious shower-bath from the contents of a bucket dashed
across the deck at that moment.

"Hillo, my men," he exclaimed, in no very amiable tone. "I thought the
ship was wrecked, with all that splashing and scrubbing. One would
suppose that the vessel was as dirty as those Augean stables that fellow
Hercules had to clean, by all the water you use."

"It's cheaper than pipe-clay, and cleaner, for it's to be had for the
taking, and don't leave any dust," muttered Jem Marlin, who was the
offender.

"It may be cheap, but it makes a confounded noise, and we have enough of
it outside, as it is," answered the colonel, not hearing the reference
to pipe-clay. "So I beg in future you won't let quite so much of it
play round my head in a morning."

This was said, as he was standing with his body half-way down the
companion ladder.

He then observed the master on the poop.

"Well, Mr Bowse, anything more of our friend, the _Flying Dutchman_?"
he asked in a jocose tone.

"If you will step up here, I will tell you more about her, sir,"
answered the master; and, thus summoned, the colonel picked his way over
the wet deck to where he was standing. "I think it right, Colonel
Gauntlett, to tell you, that you may be prepared, that we are going to
have a blow of it, shortly; and I want you to look at that brig out
there. What do you make of her?"

"Bless me, nothing--I