k--this swigging
away upon sheets and halliards just upon night-fall; and there he is
upon the poop looking as black as thunder, because, I suppose, we're not
more lively over the job. And what's it all for? Why, simply because
that young sprig, Ned, happens to sight a sail ahead of us; and because
we happen to be a smart ship the skipper won't be satisfied until we've
overhauled her. This is just the beginning of it; it'll be like this
every time we happen to see anything ahead; you mark my words."

"D'ye twig the new helmsman?" laughed another, jerking his head aft to
direct attention to Sibylla, who still held the wheel.

"Ay, ay, mate; we see her," answered Williams, who seemed to think
himself called upon to play the part of spokesman. "We see her; and a
pretty creature she is. But do you think, mates, she'll ever give any
of _us_ a spell when it's our trick? Not she! It's all very well when
it's a smart young sprig of an apprentice--or midshipman, as they call
themselves--that she can laugh and talk with; but it's a different
matter with us poor shell-backs. The swells won't have anything to say
to _its_."

"Now, you're wrong there, Josh, old shipmate, as I can testify," spoke
up Jack Simpson, a smart young A.B. "Mrs Henderson and Mrs Gaunt has
both spoke to me; and it was only a night or two ago that, when it was
my wheel, Mr Gaunt gived me a cigar; and a precious good one it was
too, I can tell ye."

"Ay; and I suppose when he handed it to you he made you feel as if you
was a dog that he was giving a bone to; didn't he?" said Williams.

"No, he didn't; not by a long ways," answered Jack. "He looked and
spoke like a thorough-bred gentleman; but he was as perlite and civil as
ever a man could be."

"Civil!" grunted Rogers. "Well, I don't make no account of that; it's
his business to be civil. He's what they calls a civil engineer; though
hang me if I know what an engineer wants aboard of a sailing ship."

"How come _you_ to know he's a civil engineer?" demanded another man.

"Because, d'ye see, mate," replied Rogers, "I was one of the hands as
was told off to pass the dunnage up when the passengers came alongside;
and I read on one of the boxes `Mr William Gaunt, C.E.' The mate saw
it, too; and he says to the skipper, as was standin' close alongside of
him, says he:--

"`Mr William Gaunt, C.E.'--what does C.E. stand for? And the skipper,
he says: `What, don't you know? Why, C.E. stands for