cider! And now Blunt, my boy, that you've calked your
_first_ nail-head, I insist upon a bumper all round to that sweetheart
you were just talking of!"

"_Me_, lieutenant?"

"_You_, corporal!"

"I wasn't talking about any sweetheart, as I remembers,
lieutenant;--'pon the honor of a soldier, I haven't had no such a
thing this twenty years, since one warm summer's afternoon, when
Jane----"

"Now, corporal, you don't pretend to contradict your superior officer,
I hope. You don't intend to be the first man on this ship to show a
mutinous example!"

"Oh! God bless me, lieutenant, the thought never entered my brain!"

But the third tumbler of champagne _did_, in the apple-blossom
disguise of "_cider_;" and, in half an hour, there wasn't an odder
figure on deck than the poor corporal, whose vice-like stock steadied
his neck, though there was nothing that could make him toe the plank
which he pertinaciously insisted on promenading. Blunt the immaculate,
was undeniably drunk!

In fact,--though I say it with all possible respect for her Majesty's
naval officers, _while on duty_,--there was, by this time, hardly a
sober man on deck or in the cabin except myself and the Spanish
captain, who left me to engage the prize-officer in a game of
backgammon or dominoes. The crew was dozing about the decks, or
nodding over the taffrail, while my colleague, the boatswain, prepared
an oar on the forecastle to assist me in reaching the beach.

It was near midnight when I stripped in my state-room, leaving my
garments in the berth, and hanging my watch over its pillow. In a
small bundle I tied a flannel shirt and a pair of duck pantaloons,
which I fastened behind my neck as I stood on the forecastle; and
then, placing the oar beneath my arm, I glided from the bows into the
quiet water.

The night was not only very dark, but a heavy squall of wind and rain,
accompanied by thunder, helped to conceal my escape; and free the
stream from sharks. I was not long in reaching a native town, where a
Krooman from below, who had known me at Gallinas, was prepared for my
reception and concealment.

Next morning, the cabin-boy, who did not find me as usual on deck,
took my coffee to the state-room, where, it was supposed, I still
rested in comfortable oblivion of last night's carouse. But the bird
had flown! There were my trunk, my garments, my watch,--undisturbed as
I left them when preparing for bed. There was the linen of my couch
turned d