I was unable to
eat a morsel; but I could have drunk the ocean, had it been claret or
vin--de--grave--to both of which I helped myself as largely as good
manners would allow, or a little beyond, mayhap. All this while the
Captain was stowing his cargo with great zeal, and tifting away at the
fluids asbecame an honest sailor after so long a fast, interlarding his
operations with a civil word to me now and then, without any especial
regard as to the answer I made him, or, indeed, caring greatly whether I
answered him or not.
"Sharp work you must have had, Mr Cringle--should have liked to have been
with you myself. Help yourself, before passing that bottle--zounds, man,
never take a bottle by the bilge--grasp the neck, man, at least in this
fervent climate--thank you. Pity you had not caught the captain though.
What you told me of that man very much interested me, coupled with the
prevailing reports regarding him in the ship--daring dog he must have
been--can't forget how gallantly he weathered us when we chased him."
I broke silence for the first time. Indeed, I could scarcely have done
so sooner, even had I chosen it, for the gallant officer was rather
continuous in his yam--spinning. However, he had nearly dined, and was
leaning back, allowing the champaigne to trickle leisurely from a glass
half a yard long, which he had applied to his lips, when I said, "Well,
the imagination does sometimes play one strange tricks--I verily believe
in second sight now, Captain, for at this very instant I am regularly the
fool of my senses,----but pray don't laugh at me;" and I lay back on my
chair, and pressed my hands over my shut eyes and hot burning temples,
which were now throbbing as if the arteries would have burst.
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