ny; while Adams and the other two
sailors, the remaining hands we had aboard, had likewise proceeded
towards the cuddy by the boatswain's advice to try and wheedle the
steward Pedro into giving them some tea, there not being as yet any cook
in the ship to look after the messing arrangements of the crew, so that
they were all adrift in this respect, having no proper provision made
for them.

Then, all was still inboard and out; nothing occurring, until,
presently, the same boy I had noticed before, and who I found was
helping the steward stowing provisions in the after-hold beneath the
saloon, came out from under the break of the poop at six o'clock to
strike the ship's bell, or "make it four bells," nautically speaking, in
the same way as he had done previously.

I think I can hear the sound now as I heard it that calm evening when we
were anchored off Gravesend. The "cling-clang, cling-clang!" of our
tocsin, tolling and telling the hour, being echoed by the "pong-pang,
pong-pang!" of the merchantman lying near us, and that again answered a
second or so later by the "ting-ting, ting-ting!" of the other vessel
further away, the different tones lingering on the air and seeming to me
like the old church bells of Westham summoning the laggards of the
congregation to prayers. Father wasn't an extreme high churchman, or
otherwise I would have said vespers!

After sunset, it grew colder, the wind coming from the eastwards up the
open reach of the river; and so, what with my wet things and standing so
long on the forecastle I began to shiver. The boatswain noticed this on
the sound of the ship's bell waking him up from a little nap into which
he had nearly fallen when things became quiet and I ceased to talk.

"Bedad ye're tremblin' all over, loike a shaved monkey wid the ag'ey,
sure," he said as he yawned and stretched himself, rising from his seat
on the knightheads, where he was supposed to be keeping a strict look-
out in the absence of the other men from forward. "Why the dickens
don't ye go into the cuddy aft an' warrum y'rsilf, an' dhry y'r wit
clothes be the stowve there, youngster?"

"I was just thinking of it," I replied.

"Ye'd betther do it, that's betther nor thinkin'," he retorted; "or ilse
ye'll be catching a cowld an' gittin' them nasty screwmatics as makes me
howl av a winther sometimes."

As Tim spoke, I heard a splashing noise in the distance, with the
rattling sound of oars moving in the rowlocks