peaks together we likes to speak alone, you bet."

The merchant raised his bushy eyebrows a little, as though he did not
relish the idea of mutual confidences suggested by his companion's
remark. "Hadn't you better take a seat?" he said.

The other took a cane-bottomed chair and carried it into the extreme
corner of the office. Then having looked steadily at the wall behind
him, and rapped it with his knuckles, he sat down, still throwing an
occasional apprehensive glance over his shoulder. "I've got a touch of
the jumps," he remarked apologetically to his employer. "I likes to
_know_ as there ain't no one behind me."

"You should give up this shocking habit of drinking," Mr. Girdlestone
said seriously. "It is a waste of the best gifts with which Providence
has endowed us. You are the worse for it both in this world and in the
next."

Captain Hamilton Miggs did not seem to be at all impressed by this very
sensible piece of advice. On the contrary, he chuckled boisterously to
himself, and, slapping his thigh, expressed his opinion that his
employer was a "rum 'un"--a conviction which he repeated to himself
several times with various symptoms of admiration.

"Well, well," Girdlestone said, after a short pause, "boys will be boys,
and sailors, I suppose, will be sailors. After eight months of anxiety
and toil, ending in success, captain--I am proud to be able to say the
words--some little licence must be allowed. I do not judge others by
the same hard and fast lines by which I regulate my own conduct."

This admirable sentiment also failed to elicit any response from the
obdurate Miggs, except the same manifestations of mirth and the same
audible aside as to the peculiarities of his master's character.

"I must congratulate you on your cargo, and wish you the same luck for
your next voyage," the merchant continued.

"Ivory, an' gold dust, an' skins, an' resin, an' cochineal, an' gums,
an' ebony, an' rice, an' tobacco, an' fruits, an' nuts in bulk.
If there's a better cargo about, I'd like to see it," the sailor said
defiantly.

"An excellent cargo, captain; very good indeed. Three of your men died,
I believe?"

"Ay, three of the lubbers went under. Two o' fever and one o'
snake-bite. It licks me what sailors are comin' to in these days.
When I was afore the mast we'd ha' been ashamed to die o' a trifle like
that. Look at me. I've been down wi' coast fever sixteen times, and
I've had yellow jack an