that had opened around the two disputants "There is
a man for you, who has made one more voyage between this and Africa than
myself, for the reason that he was born there. Now, answer as if you were
hallooing from a lee-earing, S'ip, under what sail would you heave-to a
ship, on the coast of your native country, with the danger of a white
squall at hand?"

"I no heave-'em-to," said the black, "I make 'em scud."

"Ay, boy; but, to be in readiness for the puff, would you jam her up under
a mainsail, or let her lie a little off under a fore course?"

"Any fool know dat," returned Scipio, grumly and evidently tired already
of being thus catechised.

"If you want 'em fall off, how you'm expect, in reason, he do it under a
main course? You answer me dat, misser Dick."

"Gentlemen," said Nightingale, looking about him with an air of great
gravity, "I put it to your Honours, is it genteel behaviour to bring a
nigger, in this out-of-the-way fashion, to give an opinion in the teeth of
a white man?"

This appeal to the wounded dignity of the company was answered by a common
murmur. Scipio, who was prepared to maintain, and would have maintained,
his professional opinion, after his positive and peculiar manner, against
any disputant, had not the heart to resist so general an evidence of the
impropriety of his presence. Without uttering a word in vindication or
apology, he folded his arms, and walked out of the house, with the
submission and meekness of one who had been too long trained in humility
to rebel. This desertion on the part of his companion was not, however, so
quietly acquiesced in by Fid, who found himself thus unexpectedly deprived
of the testimony of the black. He loudly remonstrated against his retreat;
but, finding it in vain, he crammed the end of several inches of tobacco
into his mouth, swearing, as he followed the African, and keeping his eye,
at the same time, firmly fastened on his adversary, that, in his opinion,
"the lad, if he was fairly skinned, would be found to be the whiter man of
the two."

The triumph of the boatswain was now complete; nor was he at all sparing
of his exultation.

"Gentlemen," he said, addressing himself, with an air of increased
confidence, to the motley audience who surrounded him, "you see that
reason is like a ship bearing down with studding-sails on both sides,
leaving a straight wake and no favours. Now, I scorn boasting, nor do I
know who the fellow is who has just she