the stoke-hold, and
who now, instead of trimming coals in the furnaces below, trimmed wicks
and attended to the lamps about the ship, on deck and elsewhere. He
managed, I may add, to make his face so dirty in the carrying out of the
lighter duties, to which he was now called, probably in fond
recollection of his byegone grimy task in the engine-room, that his
somewhat personal cognomen was very appropriate, his countenance being
oily and smutty to a degree!

He was a very lazy old chap, however; and, in lieu of attending to his
work, was generally to be found confabulating with our mulatto cook,
Accra Prout, as I discovered him now, more bent on worming out an extra
lot of grog from the chef of the galley in exchange for a lump of "hard"
tobacco, than thinking of masthead lanterns or the ship's side lights,
green and red.

"What are you about, lamp-trimmer?" I called out sharply on catching
sight of him palavering there with the mulatto, the artful beggar
furtively slipping the tin pannikin out of which he had been drinking
into the bosom of his jumper. "Here's two bells struck and no lights
up!"

"Two bells, sir?"

"Aye, two bells," I repeated, taking no notice of his affected air of
surprise. "There's the ship's bell right over your head where you
stand, and you must have heard it strike not five minutes ago."

"Lor', Master Dick, may I die a foul death ashore if I ever heard a
stroke," he replied as innocently as you please. "Howsomdever, the
lamps is all right, sir. I ain't 'ave forgot 'em."

"That's all right, then, Greazer," I said, not being too hard on him,
and excusing the sly wink he gave to Prout as he told his barefaced
banger about not hearing the bell, in memory of his past services.
"Come along now and rig them up smart, or you'll have Mr Fosset after
you."

Making him hoist our masthead light on the foremast, twenty feet above
the deck, according to the usual Board of Trade regulations for steamers
under way at sea, I then marched him before me along the deck and saw
him place our side lights in their proper position, the green one to
starboard and the red on our port hand.

Old Greazer then mounted the bridge-ladder, in advance of me, with the
binnacle lamp in his hand to put that in its place, and, as I followed
slowly in his slow footsteps, for the ex-fireman was not now quick of
movement, an accident in the stoke-hold having crippled him years ago, I
half-turned round as I ascended