alarious air of the coast had been carried home in the
hold, so foul and close were the smells evolved from it. Great
cockchafers crawled about over the packages, and occasionally a rat
would scamper over the barrels, such a rat as is only to be found in
ships which hail from the tropics. On one occasion too, as a tusk of
ivory was being hoisted out, there was a sudden cry of alarm among the
workers, and a long, yellow snake crawled out of the cavity of the trunk
and writhed away into the darkness. It is no uncommon thing to find the
deadly creatures hibernating in the hollow of the tusks until the cold
English air arouses them from their torpor, to the cost occasionally of
some unhappy stevedore or labourer.

All day Tom stood amid grease and steam, bustle and blasphemy, checking
off the cargo, and looking to its conveyance to the warehouses. At one
o'clock there was a break of an hour for dinner, and then the work went
on until six, when all hands struck and went off to their homes or to
the public-house according to inclination. Tom and the mate, both
fairly tired by their day's work, prepared to accept the captain's
invitation, and to meet him up in his quarters. The mate dived down
into his cabin, and soon reappeared with his face shining and his long
hair combed into some sort of order.

"I've been performing my ablutions," he said, rolling out the last word
with great emphasis and pomposity, for, like many Scotchmen, he had the
greatest possible reverence for a sonorous polysyllable. Indeed, in
McPherson, this national foible was pushed to excess, for, however
inappropriate the word, he never hesitated to drag it into his
conversation if he thought it would aid in the general effect.

"The captain," he continued, "has been far from salubrious this voyage.
He's aye complainin' o' his bodily infirmities."

"Hypochondriacal, perhaps," Tom remarked.

The Scotchman looked at his companion with a great accession of respect.
"My certie!" he cried. "That's the best I've heard since a word that
Jimmy M'Gee, of the _Corisco_, said the voyage afore last. Would you
kindly arteeculate it again."

"Hypochondriacal," said Tom laughing heartily.

"Hypo-chon-driacal," the mate repeated slowly. "I shouldn't think Jimmy
M'Gee kens that, or he'd ha' communicated it to me. I shall certainly
utilize it, and am obleeged to you for namin' it."

"Don't mention it," said Tom. "I'll let you have as many long words as
y