wearin'.'

"'Very well,' said I; 'you do what I've told you to do. Walk steadily
to and fro, and I'll go and see what can be done.'

"When I got down below they were still wrangling, but I soon made
peace with them, and they asked me to have a hand with them. I had a
look on deck. It was a fine moonlight night, and nothing seemed to be
in the way, so I began to play, and forgot all about the fellow on the
bridge, and everything else for that matter, until I heard four bells
go. This reminded me, so I stopped short, went on to the poop, and the
other fellows came up with me. I was chaffing them about their row,
and I heard the look-out man call out, 'A red light on the port bow,
sir!' I saw we were going a long way clear, so took no notice; but the
miner on the bridge increased his pace. In less than a minute the
look-out man called out again, 'A red light on the port bow,' and got
no answer. I thought to myself, 'What's going to be the upshot of
this?' when the man called out again, sharply this time, 'A red light
on the port bow!' The miner quite excitedly shouted at the top of his
voice, 'Blaw the b----y thing oot, then, and let's hear ne mair aboot
it!'"

At this conclusion the two captains laughed heartily, and so did
Yaunie. Then all at once Farquarson began as suddenly as he had left
off--

"Now, let us make up our minds never to broach running the gauntlet
again in Russian waters, for they're devils to listen, and you never
know where they are. Why, I've seen them at the time of the war
crawlin' and sneakin' about all over, lying on the sofa in the
billiard-rooms, and come and ask you to play in good English.
Sometimes the impudent villains would come and barefacedly sit down at
the same table where you were having a meal, and begin speakin' and
get you to say something disrespectful about Russia and their Tzar,
and lots of poor fellows were asked to leave the country for it. Talk
about despotism and bribery! Well, I've seen some of their goings on.
What did they do when the poor Turks that were taken prisoners when
Plevna fell marched into Reval? A few of us cheered them, and the
Russians got quite annoyed about it, and hustled us about as though we
were common thieves, and threatened to run us into their filthy gaol.
My word, how things have altered since the days when you could kill a
Russian and nobody cared a brass button! But now--well, there's no
word to express it."

"Ah! they're a cruel, merciless