brig was forthwith then
trimmed in her frill of red herrings, and the equivalent to a vote of
thanks was unconventionally moved and carried for the fearless
assistance and patriotic advice rendered by comrades who upheld the
true national faith of being roundly fed with good joints of beef and
plum or suet pudding. After a few appropriate remarks in anticipation
of the trouble and sensation of the morrow, the young gentlemen
dispersed, each going aboard his own ship, while those belonging to the
_Cauducas_ tumbled into their hammocks and were soon fast asleep.
They rose at the usual hour the following morning, and while they were
having breakfast angry and excited voices were heard alongside; and as
they eagerly listened to the picturesque flow of profane language
intermixed with a few eloquent remarks to God to forgive such
irreverence, their minds were permeated with fear lest suspicion would
fall on them during the paroxysm of alternate rage and godliness.
Plunker was a powerful man, and when his anger was roused they knew by
experience it was not safe to interject a word either of denial or
assent; so they determined, when he called them to him, to pursue a
policy of negativeness, and trust to Providence to deliver them from a
position that was showing signs of serious consequences. While the
irate commander was in the white heat of a tremendous peroration, and
in the act of detaching the festoons of herring which he placed so much
value on, his owner, who had come down to see his property, as was the
custom in those early days, came laughing towards his much troubled
captain and greeted him with the advice not to take the matter too
seriously. It was obviously a practical joke intended for a purpose,
and he apprehended the intention was to convey the idea that a liberal
allowance of food should be served out to his crew, and that the luxury
he placed so much value on should no longer be the object of his
special care, but that he should take to heart the lesson just revealed
to him, and allow his people to partake generously of that also. As the
vessel was lying alongside a shipbuilding and repairing yard, a large
crowd of workmen had congregated to see so unusual a display.
Discourteous and jeering remarks were loudly spoken with the studied
intention of reaching the ears of the master and owner, and the news of
a revolutionary act having been committed within the precincts of an
unyielding discipline spread like