ou," he answered.
I argued the point. "Well, sir, if as how you pays your footing, I'll
do it," he replied; "but, sir, you'll take care that I'm not tied up and
get two dozen for disobeying orders." I was ready to promise anything,
for it was very unpleasant rolling about up there in the dark. After
some hesitation and further talk, Tom Hansard, that was the topman's
name, cut off the lashings. I gave him five shillings, all the money I
had in my pocket. "You'll keep it secret, sir," said he. "You'll say
nothing against a poor fellow like me, sir; that you won't, I know." I
promised him, and he then helped me down through the lubber's hole, for
as to going down outside, I couldn't just then have done it to save my
life. When I got back to the berth, there were all my three messmates
seated round the table, taking their tea, and pretending to be very much
astonished at hearing all which had happened to me. Of course, I said
nothing about Tom Hansard, and they pretended that they could not make
out how I had got loose. I found out, however, that the whole plan was
arranged beforehand by Dicky Snookes and my other messmates with the
captain of the top, just to see what I was made of, and what I would do,
it being understood that he was to keep whatever he could get out of me.
Had I cried or made a fuss about the matter, or said that I would
complain to my uncle, I should have been looked upon as a regular sneak.
The fellows hate telling of one another here just as much as we did at
school. From the way I took the trick I believe they liked me better
than they did before. Of course, all about the garden and the
vegetables was nonsense, and I should have been green to have believed
it, which I didn't. Away we went rolling along with a westerly swell
and a northerly wind, while many of the fellows in the berth were
singing: "There we lay, all the day, in the Bay of Biscay, O;" and
others "Rule Britannia," old Gregson not forgetting his standing joke of
"Bless the old girl; I wish, while she was about it, that she had ruled
them straighter." The very next morning the gale, of which the swell
was the forerunner, came down upon us with a sudden gust. "All hands
shorten sail," was shouted along the decks. The men flew aloft, that
is, they climbed up so nimbly that they looked as if they were flying,
and they lay out on the yards to reef the sail. Snookes had to go also,
as he was stationed in the foretop. "Any gre