emark that it is over well-bred, whoever you are, officer or man; if at
my history, let me observe, all you have to do is to match it before you
venture to turn it into fun. It may have been equalled. I don't wish
to rob any man of his laurels; but it has not been surpassed, and so Mr
Haugh! Haugh! I've shut you up, and intend to shut up myself, too, for
it's time for me to go on deck and see what's become of the ship, and
that no one has walked away with her."

Saying this, the boatswain rose from his tub, and with his huge head and
shoulders bent down as he passed under the beams, he took his departure
from among the hammocks. He had not been gone long before Toby Bluff
made his appearance; and as he came up to me I fancied, from his
countenance, that there must be something wrong with him.

"What is the matter, Bluff?" I asked.

"Why, sir, I thought Mr Johnson was here," said he, without giving an
answer to my question.

"But what if he is not?" said I.

"Why, Muster Merry, I wanted to see him very much before he went on
deck," he answered.

"On what account?" I asked, convinced that Toby had something to say
which he, at all events, considered of importance, and I thought he
might just as well tell me before he communicated it to the boatswain.
He was Mr Johnson's servant, it must be remembered.

"Why, sir, I don't know whether I am right or wrong," he whispered,
coming close up to my hammock. "It's just this, sir. We have got, you
know, some three or four hundred French prisoners aboard, at all events
many more than our own crew now numbers, as so many are away in the
prize, and others wounded. Well, sir, as I have been dodging in and out
among them, I have observed several of them in knots, talking and
whispering together as if there was something brewing among them.
Whenever I got near any of them they were silent, because they thought I
might understand their lingo, though I don't. I was sure there was
something wrong. It might be they didn't like their provisions or their
grog, and were going to ask for something else, but, whatever it was, I
made up my mind to find it out. At last I remembered that there is a
boy aboard, Billy Cuff, sir, who was taken prisoner by the French, and
lived in their country for ever so long, and he used to be very fond of
coming out with French words, though he is not a bit fond of the French,
for they killed his father and his brother, poor fellow. Thinks I to