hat expanded their folds, which, coupled with the wash and `Break,
break, break!' of the sea, sounded like a sad lullaby.

All was quietness on deck: some of the late hands having their tea
below, where one or two had already turned in to gain a few winks of
sleep before being called on duty to keep the first watch. Others
again, as I've already said, where chatting and yarning on the
fo'c's'le, as sailors love to chat and yarn of an evening, when the ship
is sailing free with a fair wind, and there's nothing much doing, save
to mind the helm and take an occasional pull at the braces to keep her
"full and by."

All was quiet; but, not for long!

It was just beginning to grow dark, although still light enough to see
everything that was going on fore and aft, when Captain Snaggs staggered
out from the cuddy, coming through the doorway underneath the break of
the poop, and not going up the companion hatch, as was his usual habit
when he came out on deck.

He looked as if he had been drinking pretty heavily from the bottle of
rum the steward had brought in as I left the cabin, an impression which
his thick speech confirmed, when, after fetching up against the mainmast
bitts, in a vain attempt to work to windward and reach the poop ladder,
he began to roar out my name.

"B'y! I wants thet b'y, Chawley Hills! Hillo, Chaw-ley! Chawley
Hills!--Hills!--Hills! On deck thaar! Where are ye? By thunder! I'll
spif-spif-splicate ye, b'y, when I catch ye! Come hyar!"

I was rather terrified at this summons, the more especially from his
being drunk, but, I went all the same towards him.

He clutched hold of me the moment I came near.

"Ye d-d-durned young reptile!" he roared, more soberly than he had
spoken before; and, from a sort of agonised look in his face, I could
see that something more than mere drink affected him, for I had noticed
him before under the influence of intoxicating liquors. "Tell me wha-at
thet infarnal nigger put into the grub? Ye know ye knows all about it,
fur ye looked guilty when the mate an' I wer talkin' about it at table;
an' he's been pizened, an' so am I; an' he sez ye knows all about it,
an' so does I; an' what is more, b'y, I'll squeeze the life out of ye if
yer don't tell!"

"Oh, please, sir," I cried out; as well as the pressure of his hands on
my throat would permit, "I don't know. I don't know anything."

"Cuss ye, b'y. Ye dew know; an', if chokin' won't get it out of ye,
we'