to be on board, and now
he shall try how he likes to obey orders in his shirt tails. So
cogitating, Jack took the trousers of the boatswain, who still snored,
although he had been called, and, putting them on, completed the rest of
his dress, and quitted the room. He went to that of Mr Asper, where he
found him just ready, and, having paid the bill--for Asper had forgotten
his purse--they proceeded down to the sally-port, where they found other
officers waiting, sufficient to load the first boat, which shoved off,
and they went on board. As soon as he was down below, Jack hastened to
change his trousers, and, unobserved by any one, threw those belonging
to Mr Biggs on a chair in his cabin, and, having made a confidant of
Mesty, who was delighted, he went on deck, and waited the issue of the
affair.

Before Jack left the hotel, he had told the waiter that there was the
boatswain still fast asleep, and that he must be roused up immediately;
and this injunction was obeyed. The boatswain, who had drunk too much
the night before, and, as Jack had truly imagined, had opened the window
because he was unwell, was wakened up, and, hearing how late it was,
hastened to dress himself. Not finding his trousers, he rang the bell,
supposing that they had been taken down to be brushed, and, in the
meantime, put on everything else, that he might lose no time: the waiter
who answered the bell denied having taken the trousers out of the room,
and poor Mr Biggs was in a sad quandary. What had become of them, he
could not tell: he had no recollection of having gone to bed the night
before; he inquired of the waiter, who said that he knew nothing about
them--that he was very tipsy when he came home, and that when he called
him, he had found the window open, and it appeared that he had been
unwell--he supposed that he had thrown his trousers out of the window.
Time flew, and the boatswain was in despair. "Could they lend him a
pair?"

"He would call his master."

The master of the inn knew very well the difference of rank between
officers, and those whom he could trust and those whom he could not. He
sent up the bill by the waiter, and stated that, for a deposit, the
gentleman might have a pair of trousers. The boatswain felt in his
pockets and remembered that all his money was in his trousers' pocket.
He could not only not leave a deposit, but could not pay his bill. The
landlord was inexorable. It was bad enough to lose his mo