ifle: I'll allow you to put fifty francs down on
this whisky keg."

"Fifty francs, Captain le Harnois! Permit me to remind you that I only
came aboard this morning, and that----"

"Jessamy, it's no use talking: fifty francs: we give no change here.
And what the d---l? Would you think to treat the crew of the _Fleurs de
lys_, four and forty picked men, with less than sixty franks?"

"Sixty! Captain, you said fifty."

"Did I? Well, but that was the first time of asking. Come, quick,--my
young gallant,--or I shall hoist it up to seventy. I say, boatswain,
tell the smith to send me a hammer and a few tenpenny nails: I've a
customer here that's wanting to cheat me; and I see I must nail him to
the mast, before we shall balance books. But stop a minute: I'll tell
you what, Jessamy,--if you'll enter aboard the _Fleurs de lys_, I'll
let you off for the money."

"I fear, Captain, that your work would be too much for my constitution:
I am hardly strong enough to undertake such severe duty."

"Not strong enough? Oh! the dragon! my darling, what should ail you?
I'll make you strong enough by to-morrow morning. Just hang him up an
hour to the mast head, salt him, take him down, pickle him, hoist him
up in the main tops to season, then give him some flap-dragon and
biscuit, and I'll be bound there's not a lubber that lives but will be
cured into a prime salt-water article. But come, sixty francs!"

Bertram hesitated for a moment: during which Captain le Harnois rose;
turned on his heel; placed himself astride the carronade with a large
goblet of brandy in his right hand; and with the air of an old Cupid
who was affecting to look amiable and to warble, but in reality more
like a Boreas who was growling, he opened the vast chasm of his mouth
and began to sing a sentimental love song.

Bertram perceived that, as the brandy lowered, Captain le Harnois'
demand would be likely to rise; and therefore paid the money without
further demur.

"And now, my sweet boy," said Captain le Harnois, "what do you think of
the _Fleurs de lys_? Tight sea-boat! isn't she, and a little better
managed than the Halcyon, eh?--Things go on in another _guess_ fashion
here than they did on board your d---d steam boat? Different work on
_my_ deck, eh?"

"Very different work, indeed, Captain le Harnois!"

"Aye, a d---d deal different, my boy. I know what it is I'm speaking
to, when I speak to my lads: but I'm d---d if a man knows what he's
speaking to