d
quite made up his superstitious mind that the ship never would go down,
and now devoted himself with a whole heart to his old occupation of
drinking himself into delirium tremens and physicking himself out of it
again.

The _Black Eagle_ had a fair cargo aboard, and Miggs was proportionately
jubilant. The drunken old sea-dog had taken a fancy to Tom's frank face
and honest eyes, and greeted him with effusion when he came aboard next
morning.

"Knock me asunder, but you look rosy, man!" he cried. "It's easy to see
that you have not been lying off Fernando Po, or getting the land mist
into your lungs in the Gaboon."

"You look well yourself, captain," said Tom.

"Tolerable, tolerable. Just a touch of the jumps at times."

"We can begin getting our cargo out, I suppose? I have a list here to
check it. Will you have the hatches off at once?"

"No work for me," said Captain Hamilton Miggs with decision.
"Here, Sandy--Sandy McPherson, start the cargo, will ye, and stir your
great Scotch bones. I've done enough in bringing this sieve of a ship
all the way from Africa, without working when I am in dock."

McPherson was the first mate, a tall, yellow-bearded Aberdonian.
"I'll see t'it," he said shortly. "You can gang ashore or where you
wull."

"The _Cock and Cowslip_," said the captain, "I say, you--Master
Dimsdale--when you're done come up an' have a glass o' wine with me.
I'm only a plain sailor man, but I'm damned if my heart ain't in the
right place. You too, McPherson--you'll come up and show Mr. Dimsdale
the way. _Cock and Cowslip_, corner o' Sextant Court." The two having
accepted his invitation, the captain shuffled off across the gangway and
on to terra firma.

All day Tom stood at the hatchway of the _Black Eagle_, checking the
cargo as it was hoisted out of her, while McPherson and his motley
assistants, dock labourers, seamen, and black Kroomen from the coast,
worked and toiled in the depths below. The engine rattled and snorted,
and the great chain clanked as it was lowered into the hold.

"Make fast there!" cries the mate.

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"All right?"

"All right, sir."

"Hoist away!"

And clank, clank went the chain again, and whir-r-r the engine, and up
would come a pair of oil casks, as though the crane were some giant
forceps which was plucking out the great wooden teeth of the vessel.
It seemed to Tom, as he stood looking down, note-book in hand, that some
of the actual m