lace
must have horrified him, at times, with the thought that, however he
might isolate and entomb himself, yet for all this, the improbability
of his being overtaken by what he most dreaded never advanced to the
infallibility of the impossible.

In my intercourse with Nord, he never made allusion to his past
career--a subject upon which most high-bred castaways in a man-of-war
are very diffuse; relating their adventures at the gaming-table; the
recklessness with which they have run through the amplest fortunes in a
single season; their alms-givings, and gratuities to porters and poor
relations; and above all, their youthful indiscretions, and the
broken-hearted ladies they have left behind. No such tales had Nord to
tell. Concerning the past, he was barred and locked up like the specie
vaults of the Bank of England. For anything that dropped from him, none
of us could be sure that he had ever existed till now. Altogether, he
was a remarkable man.

My other friend, Williams, was a thorough-going Yankee from Maine, who
had been both a peddler and a pedagogue in his day. He had all manner
of stories to tell about nice little country frolics, and would run
over an endless list of his sweethearts. He was honest, acute, witty,
full of mirth and good humour--a laughing philosopher. He was
invaluable as a pill against the spleen; and, with the view of
extending the advantages of his society to the saturnine Nord, I
introduced them to each other; but Nord cut him dead the very same
evening, when we sallied out from between the guns for a walk on the
main-deck.

CHAPTER XIV.

A DRAUGHT IN A MAN-OF-WAR.

We were not many days out of port, when a rumour was set afloat that
dreadfully alarmed many tars. It was this: that, owing to some
unprecedented oversight in the Purser, or some equally unprecedented
remissness in the Naval-storekeeper at Callao, the frigate's supply of
that delectable beverage, called "grog," was well-nigh expended.

In the American Navy, the law allows one gill of spirits per day to
every seaman. In two portions, it is served out just previous to
breakfast and dinner. At the roll of the drum, the sailors assemble
round a large tub, or cask, filled with liquid; and, as their names are
called off by a midshipman, they step up and regale themselves from a
little tin measure called a "tot." No high-liver helping himself to
Tokay off a well-polished sideboard, smacks his lips with more mighty
satis