with that rascal Myers: we are certain it was him. He
had the daring to fire into us; killed one of our people, poor Tom
Darling, and wounded two, getting off into the bargain. But we will be
even with him before long, and when we do catch him, we'll pay him off,
that's all. Well I'm glad you escaped, that I am; but come below, and
let us hear the whole story."

In this way the kind-hearted fellow ran on. Having been welcomed by
Growl, Scriven, and the rest of my shipmates, I went to report myself to
my uncle, who was in his cabin. He seemed truly glad to find that I had
not become food for fishes, though he did not exhibit his pleasure
exactly in the same way Hanks had done. When I was dismissed by him, I
dived down into our berth, and there, over a glass of his too-favourite
beverage, old Hanks listened to an account of my adventures. "It was
the Cremona did it, after all!" he exclaimed, slapping my shoulder. "I
told you it would stand you in good stead. Stick to it, my lad, and
you'll become as great a man as that old chap Orpheus, I've heard tell
of, who made the beasts jig when he fiddled. Who the gentleman was, I
can't say, except that he was one of Julius Caesar's generals, wasn't
he?"

I must observe that Hanks' knowledge of history, both ancient and
modern, was somewhat limited and confused; indeed he was impressed with
a notion that Julius Caesar, for whom he had a high respect, came over
to England somewhere in the last century, and having taken possession of
the country, was in his turn thrashed by William the Conqueror. Of all
subsequent events till the time of Nelson, he professed total ignorance.

"Ah, Nelson was the chap who made the English!" he used to exclaim in
triumph; "and as for Nap, whom they talk so much about, what was he to
him, I should like to know. Why, the little Frenchman couldn't put a
ship about in a steady breeze, I'll warrant; and as for handling her in
a gale, I doubt if he could have done it even if his crown depended on
it."

Hanks had no very great respect for science either.

"What do I care for your algebra and your trigonometry?" he one day
observed. "I take my John Norie and my Gunter's Scale, and I work out
my day's work as well as any man; and what more should I want to know,
tell me? Your mathematicians are all humbugs in my opinion, and that's
a fact."

I mention these little traits in Hanks' character, because I shall now
have to bid him farewell for