peaker, who
checked himself, and, giving an emphatic rap with his crutch on the
floor, went on with--

"Beg parding, sir; but, Lord love ye! we just walked up under his lee,
and afore he know'd where he wos, we boarded him, knocked over two or
three chaps, and had the skipper lashed down in his cabin as quick as
winkin' and as quiet as could be. Ay, sir, we had it all our own way;
but during the scrimmage wot should I see (here he inclined his head out
like a loggerhead turtle) but the lovelyest young 'oman as ever I
clapped eyes on!" Here his timber stump grated nervously on the floor.
"Says I, that's just the craft, with such a clean run and full bows, as
would please Captain Brand"--at which that individual rolled round on
his elbow and brought his eye to the opera-glass in the direction of the
schooner.

"She isn't there, captain!" parenthesized the narrator, following the
motion with his head. "So I just fisted hold of her to hand her tenderly
into the boat, with a bag of shiners as wos found on board, when, so
help me---- --beg parding, sir--if a dwarfed giant of a nigger didn't
take an overhand lick at me with an iron pump-break, and nearly cut this
'ere larboard pin in two pieces; and, smash my brains!" he continued,
shaking his broad paw aloft with rage, "but what does I do, with all the
pain from the clip that da--(beg parding, sir) give me, I slams away
with a pistol bullet through the nigger's head--"

"Didn't I see a little boy on board the 'Centipede?' Perhaps I was
mistaken, the sun blazes so fiercely, eh?" broke in Captain Brand,
though the sun didn't blaze with a fiercer light than shot out of his
deadly cold blue eyes.

"Ho, ay, sir! that young imp was a bitin' at my t'other leg like a bull
terrier pup, while the nigger was attackin' me, and then he goes and
crawls out of the cabin winders, and was fished out of the water by the
chaps as wos towin' astarn in the boat."

"Oh, really! how very fortunate!" muttered the captain; "go on; don't
stop, I pray you, Master Gibbs."

"Well, sir, I knows very little what happened arter this, for the young
'oman was a screamin' and our chaps a cursin' about the decks, when all
of a sudden I fell off into a faint like, and the same time a heavy gun
came slamming into our very ears; and there was that infarnal corvette
agen bowlin' down within five cables' length of the brig, her battery
all alight and the whistles a callin' away the boats, in as violent a
has