of the locker in the skipper's cabin, and made it
look like hoggermy. Now, suppose I undressed a bit, say to my
flannel-shirt, tied an old red comforter that I've got round my waist,
to keep my trowges up, and then touches my hands and arms and phiz over
with some of that stain. Then I swims off to the gunboat, asks civil
like for the Don skipper, and says I'm a Spanish AB and a volunteer come
on the job."

"And what then?" said Fitz, laughing.

"Ah, you may laugh, sir. But you can't expect a common sailor like me,
who's a bit handy with his hammer and saw, to be up to all the dodges of
an educated young gent like you as has sarved his time aboard the
_Bry-tannia_ in Dartmouth Harbour. But of course there's a `what then'
to all I said. I shouldn't want to dress myself up like a play-hactor
in a penny show, with a red pocket-hankerchy tied to a mop-stick, big
boots, and a petticut instead of trowges, pretending he's a black
pirate, with a blood-red flag, one of your penny plain and twopence
coloured kind, you know. I did lots of them when I was a young 'un, and
had a box of paints. Not me. There's a `what then' to all this 'ere, a
sting to it, same as there is in a wopse's tail."

"Let's have it then," said Fitz. "I want to hear what you'd do when Don
Cousin there shakes hands with you and says, `You're the very man I've
been waiting for all through this voyage.'"

"Yes, sir; that's it. You've got it to rights. That's just what he
says, only it'd be in his Spanish liquorice lingo; and then the very
first time I takes my trick at the wheel I looks out for one of them
ugly sharp-pinted rocks like a fang just sticking out of the water, runs
the gunboat right a-top of it, makes a big hole in her bottom; down she
goes, great gun and all, and there you are. Now, Mr Poole, sir, what
have you got to say to that?"

"Nothing," said Poole. "It's too big for me. When do you mean to
start?"

"Well, I haven't quite made up my mind as to that yet, sir," said Chips
quietly. "There's the skipper's consent to get, and the painting to do;
and then I aren't quite sure about that there red comforter. I am
afraid it's in my old chest, the one that's at home, and I shouldn't
look so Span'l-like without a bit of colour. But it's a good idea,
isn't it, sir, although Mr Fitz don't seem to think much of it? What
do you make of them now on board the gunboat?"

"There's somebody on the bridge, and he's got a glass, and I sa