underwriter in a tempest?'

'If it plaize you, zur,' the prisoner answered, 'Oi do but think o' m'
ould mother at Wellington, and woonder who will kape her now that Oi'm
gone!'

'And what is that to me?' shouted the brutal seaman. 'How can you arrive
at your journey's end sound and hearty if you sit like a sick fowl upon
a perch? Laugh, man, and be merry, or I will give you something to weep
for. Out on you, you chicken-hearted swab, to sulk and fret like a babe
new weaned! Have you not all that heart could desire? Give him a touch
with the rope's-end, Jem, if ever you do observe him fretting. It is but
to spite us that he doth it.'

'If it please your honour,' said a seaman, coming hurriedly down from
the deck, 'there is a stranger upon the poop who will have speech with
your honour.'

'What manner of man, sirrah?'

'Surely he is a person of quality, your honour. He is as free wi' his
words as though he were the captain o' the ship. The boatswain did but
jog against him, and he swore so woundily at him and stared at him so,
wi' een like a tiger-cat, that Job Harrison says we have shipped the
devil himsel.' The men don't like the look of him, your honour!'

'Who the plague can this spark be?' said the skipper. 'Go on deck, Jem,
and tell him that I am counting my live stock, and that I shall be with
him anon.'

'Nay, your honour! There will trouble come of it unless you come up. He
swears that he will not bear to be put off, and that he must see you on
the instant.'

'Curse his blood, whoever he be!' growled the seaman. 'Every cock on
his own dunghill. What doth the rogue mean? Were he the Lord High Privy
Seal, I would have him to know that I am lord of my own quarter-deck!'
So saying, with many snorts of indignation, the mate and the captain
withdrew together up the ladder, banging the heavy hatchways down as
they passed through.

A single oil-lamp swinging from a beam in the centre of the gangway
which led between the rows of cells was the only light which was
vouchsafed us. By its yellow, murky glimmer we could dimly see the great
wooden ribs of the vessel, arching up on either side of us, and crossed
by the huge beams which held the deck. A grievous stench from foul bilge
water poisoned the close, heavy air. Every now and then, with a squeak
and a clutter, a rat would dart across the little zone of light and
vanish in the gloom upon the further side. Heavy breathing all round
me showed that my companions,