ir boots." The cook,
craning his neck to hear better, was scandalised. "Keep your mouth shut
when your elders speak, you impudent young heathen--you." "All right, old
Hallelujah, I'm done," answered Charley, soothingly. At some opinion of
dirty Knowles, delivered with an air of supernatural cunning, a ripple
of laughter ran along, rose like a wave, burst with a startling roar.
They stamped with both feet; they turned their shouting faces to the
sky; many, spluttering, slapped their thighs; while one or two, bent
double, gasped, hugging themselves with both arms like men in pain. The
carpenter and the boatswain, without changing their attitude, shook with
laughter where they sat; the sailmaker, charged with an anecdote about a
Commodore, looked sulky; the cook was wiping his eyes with a greasy rag;
and lame Knowles, astonished at his own success, stood in their midst
showing a slow smile.

Suddenly the face of Donkin leaning high-shouldered over the after-rail
became grave. Something like a weak rattle was heard through the
forecastle door. It became a murmur; it ended in a sighing groan. The
washerman plunged both his arms into the tub abruptly; the cook became
more crestfallen than an exposed backslider; the boatswain moved his
shoulders uneasily; the carpenter got up with a spring and walked
away--while the sailmaker seemed mentally to give his story up, and began
to puff at his pipe with sombre determination. In the blackness of the
doorway a pair of eyes glimmered white, and big, and staring. Then James
Wait's head protruding, became visible, as if suspended between the two
hands that grasped a doorpost on each side of the face. The tassel of
his blue woollen nightcap, cocked forward, danced gaily over his left
eyelid. He stepped out in a tottering stride. He looked powerful as
ever, but showed a strange and affected unsteadiness in his gait;
his face was perhaps a trifle thinner, and his eyes appeared rather
startlingly prominent. He seemed to hasten the retreat of departing
light by his very presence; the setting sun dipped sharply, as though
fleeing before our nigger; a black mist emanated from him; a subtle
and dismal influence; a something cold and gloomy that floated out and
settled on all the faces like a mourning veil. The circle broke up. The
joy of laughter died on stiffened lips. There was not a smile left among
all the ship's company. Not a word was spoken. Many turned their
backs, trying to look unconce