ely among
us. Well, Sir Jarvy had clapped a stopper on the signals, seeing as we
had got fairly into the smoke, and Jack and I was looking about us for
the muskets, not knowing but a chance might turn up to chuck a little
lead into some of the parly-woos; and so says Jack, says he, 'Ned, you's
got my musket;--(as I _had_, sure enough)--and says he, 'Ned, you's got
my musket; but no matter arter all, as they're much of a muchness.' So
when he'd said this, he lets fly; but whether he hit any body, is more
than I can say. If he _did_, 'twas likely a Frenchman, as he shot
that-a-way. 'Now,' says Jack, says he, 'Ned, as this is your musket, you
can load it, and hand over mine, and I'll sheet home another of the
b----s.' Well, at that moment the Frenchman lifted for'ard, on a heavy
swell, and let drive at us, with all his forecastle guns, fired as it
might be with one priming--"

"That was bad gunnery," growled Tom Sponge, "it racks a ship woundily."

"Yes, they'se no judgment in ships, in general. Well, them French
twelves are spiteful guns; and a _little_ afore they fired, it seemed to
me I heard something give Jack a rap on the check, that sounded as if a
fellow's ear was boxed with a clap of thunder. I looked up, and there
was Jack streaming out like the fly of the ensign, head foremost, with
the body towing after it by strings in the neck."

"I thought when a fellow's head was shot off," put in another
quarter-master named Ben Barrel, "that the body was left in the ship
while only the truck went!"

"That comes of not seeing them things, Ben," rejoined the eye-witness.
"A fellow's head is staid in its berth just like a ship's mast. There's
for'ard and back-stays, and shrouds, all's one as aboard here; the only
difference is that the lanyards are a little looser, so as to give a man
more play for his head, than it might be safe to give to a mast. When a
fellow makes a bow, why he only comes up a little aft, and bowses on the
fore-stay, and now and then you falls in with a chap that is stayed
altogether too far for'ard, or who's got a list perhaps from having the
shrouds set up too taut to port or to starboard."

"That sounds reasonable," put in the quarter-gunner, gravely; "I've seen
such droggers myself."

"If you'd been on the poop an hour or too ago, you'd ha' seen more on
it! Now, there's all our marines, their back-stays have had a fresh pull
since they were launched, and, as for their captain, I'll warrant you,