through amongst de keys at
Port Royal."

"She will never give you that trouble again, my boy--foundered--all
hands lost, Peter, but the two you see before you."

"Werry sorry, Massa 'Plinter, werry sorry. What? de black cook's-mate
and all? But misfortune can't be help. Stop till I put up my needle, and
I will take a turn wid you. Proper dat British hofficers in distress
should assist one anoder--we shall consult togeder. How can I serve
you?"

"Why, Peter, if you could help us to a passage to Port Royal, it would
be serving us most essentially. Here we have been for more than a month,
without a single vessel belonging to the station having looked in; our
money is running short, and in another six weeks we shall not have a
shot left in the locker."

The negro looked steadfastly at us, and then carefully around before he
answered.

"You see, Massa 'Plinter, I am desirable to serve you; it is good for me
at present to make some friend wid the hofficer of de squadron, being as
how dat I am absent widout leave. If you will promise dat you will stand
my friends, I will put you in de way of getting a shove across to de
east end of Jamaica; and I will go wid you, too, for company. But you
must promise dat you will not seek to know more of de vessel, nor of her
crew, than dey are willing to tell you, provided you are landed safe."

Mr. Splinter agreed and presently Peter Mangrove went off in a canoe to a
large, shallow vessel, to reappear with another blackamoor, of as
ungainly an exterior as could well be imagined.

"Pray, sir, are you the master of that vessel?" said the lieutenant.

"No, sir, I am the mate; and I learn you are desirous of a passage to
Jamaica." This was spoken with a broad Scotch accent.

"Yes, we do," said I, in very great astonishment; "but we will not sail
with the devil; and who ever saw a negro Scotchman before?"

The fellow laughed. "I am black, as you see; so were my father and
mother before me. But I was born in the good town of Glasgow,
notwithstanding; and many a voyage I have made as cabin-boy and cook
with worthy old Jock Hunter. But here comes our captain. Captain
Vanderbosh, here are two shipwrecked British officers who wish to be put
ashore in Jamaica; will you take them, and what will you charge for
their passage?"

The man he spoke to was a sun-burnt, iron-visaged veteran.

"Vy for von hundred thaler I will land dem safe in de bay."

The bargain was ratified, and that same ev