He done it to cover the remarks of a cock-bird bein' killed
forrard, but it came out paralysin' in its _tout ensemble_. You never
heard the 'Dead March' on a bugle? Then the pipes went twitterin' for both
watches to attend public execution, an' we came up like so many ghosts,
the 'ole ship's company. Why, Mucky 'Arcourt, one o' our boys, was that
took in he give tongue like a beagle-pup, an' was properly kicked down the
ladder for so doin'. Well, there we lay--engines stopped, rollin' to the
swell, all dark, yards cock-billed, an' that merry tune yowlin' from the
upper bridge. We fell in on the foc'sle, leavin' a large open space by the
capstan, where our sail-maker was sittin' sewin' broken firebars into the
foot of an old 'ammick. 'E looked like a corpse, an' Mucky had another fit
o' hysterics, an' you could 'ear us breathin' 'ard. It beat anythin' in
the theatrical line that even us _Archimandrites_ had done--an' we was the
ship you could trust. Then come the doctor an' lit a red lamp which he
used for his photographic muckin's, an' chocked it on the capstan. That
was finally gashly!
"Then come twelve Marines guardin' Glass 'ere. You wouldn't think to see
'im what a gratooitous an' aboundin' terror he was that evenin'. 'E was in
a white shirt 'e'd stole from Cockburn, an' his regulation trousers,
barefooted. 'E'd pipe-clayed 'is 'ands an' face an' feet an' as much of
his chest as the openin' of his shirt showed.
Pages:
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78