e again," and he continued to look
as though he had some great purpose in satisfying himself, while from
the fo'castle there came shouts of laughter and singing. When he heard
this he spoke again, but almost to himself.

"Shout away, you scum," he muttered; "shout while you can. It'll be a
different tune to-morrow."

I was leaning then on the bulwarks almost at his side, and presently he
addressed himself directly to me, and earnestly.

"We had a narrow shave to-night. It's put me out to leave the doctor,
for he was the best of them--one of the only men that I could reckon
on. If it hadn't been for him and the Irishman, this lot would have
swung long ago--maybe they'll swing now. The hounds have got the scent;
and, God knows, they will follow it! It's lucky for some of them that I
had twenty pairs of eyes open for me in London, and knew the
Government's game in time to get this tender out of Ramsgate; but you
mark me, boy, there's trouble coming, and thick. I've gone out without
a gallon of oil again, and by-and-by we're going to run for our necks,
every man of us."

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"What makes me think that?--why, my senses. They'll follow us from some
port here, as sure as the wind's rising; maybe they'll let us get
aboard the ship, and then that'll be the beginning of it. But if we
only hold out with the oil, then let 'em take care of themselves----"

"And if not?"

He shrugged his shoulders and was silent; but anon he asked again what
I thought of a long, rakish-looking steamer lying some miles away on
the starboard quarter, and when I had satisfied him he said--

"Come downstairs and get some wine into you, boy"; and I went below to
his small and not very elegant cabin, where he put champagne and
glasses on the table.

"Let's drink against the thirst we'll have to-morrow," cried he,
getting quite jovial, and pouring the Pommery down his throat as though
it had been beer. "This is an occasion such as we shan't often
know--the old ship against Europe, and one man against the lot of them!
Why, lad, if it wasn't for the thought of the oil, I'd get up and
dance. The lubbers could no more lay a finger on me, given fair fight,
than they could touch the moon. You see, it's just the oil that Karl's
feared all along; drive by gas, and you want twenty times the grease in
your cylinders that you'll ever need in a steam-ship. If there hadn't
been that break-up north, we'd never have been in thi