ull together
first-rate arter a while."

CHAPTER TEN.

CAPTAIN JOHNSON EXPLAINS HIMSELF.

The cabin of the _Albatross_ was a much larger apartment than one would
have expected to find in a craft of her size. It was about twenty feet
long and eighteen feet broad, occupying the entire width of the ship;
the state-rooms--of which there were two only--being outside the cabin,
at the foot of the companion staircase. The apartment was well lighted
and very airy, light and air being admitted not only through the
skylight, but also through the stern-ports and dead-lights fitted into
the sides of the ship. The fittings were extremely rich, though
somewhat out of harmony with each other, conveying to Captain Staunton's
educated eye the idea that they had been collected at odd times from a
number of other ships. The rudder-case, for example, was inclosed in a
piece of elaborate carved and gilded work representing the trunk and
branches of a palm-tree; but it had apparently been found too large, and
the sections had accordingly been cut down to make them fit, the result
being that the carving did not match at the junctions. The trunk of the
tree had also been cut off rather clumsily at the base and fitted badly
to the cabin floor, while the branches had been cut through in places
where the beams crossed the ceiling, and had been nailed on again in
such a way as to make them look as though they had grown through the
beams. Then again the cushions to the lockers were of different sizes,
colours, and materials, some being of velvet and others of horsehair,
and every one of them from one to three sizes too large. The sides of
the cabin were divided into panels by carved and gilded pilasters, which
exhibited in a very marked degree the same incongruity, the eight
pilasters in the cabin exhibiting no less than three different patterns.
Some half a dozen pictures, one or two of which were really valuable
paintings, were securely hung in the panels; and the stern-windows were
fitted with handsome lace curtains, much too large for the position
which they occupied. Two very handsome swinging lamps, of different
designs, were suspended from the beams; a tell-tale compass and a ship's
barometer occupied respectively the fore and after ends of the skylight;
and the bulkhead which formed the fore end of the cabin was fitted above
the sideboard with racks in which reposed six repeating rifles; the
panels which were unoccupied by pi