ery
curiously. Bill, rout up A. Grigg and Son, an' fetch him forra'd
here to listen. You'll find the tools underneath him in the
stern-sheets."

Bill obeyed, and possessing himself of hammer and chisel lounged off
to the shore. The little barber drew near, and stood at Mr. Jope's
elbow. His face wore an unhealthy pallor, and he smelt potently of
strong drink.

"Brandy it is," apologised Mr. Jope, observing a slight contraction
of the Parson's nostril. "I reckoned 'twould tauten him a bit for
what's ahead. . . . Well, as I was sayin', it happened very
curiously. This day fortnight we were beatin' up an' across the Bay
o' Biscay, after a four months' to-an'-fro game in front of Toolon
Harbour. Blowin' fresh it was, an' we makin' pretty poor weather of
it--the _Vesoovius_ bein' a powerful wet tub, an' a slug at the best
o' times. 'Tisn' her fault, you understand: aboard a bombship
everything's got to be heavy--timbers, scantling, everything about
her--to stand the concussion. What with this an' her mortars, she
sits pretty low; but to make up for it, what with all this dead
weight, and bein' short-sparred, she can carry all sail in a breeze
that would surprise you. Well, sir, for two days she'd been carryin'
canvas that fairly smothered us, an' Cap'n Crang not a man to care
how we fared forra'd, so long as the water didn' reach aft to his own
quarters. But at last the First Lootenant, Mr. Wapshott, took pity
on us, and--the Cap'n bein' below, takin' his nap after dinner--sends
the crew o' the maintop aloft to take a reef in the tops'le.
Poor Eli was one. Whereby the men had scarcely reached the top afore
Cap'n Crang comes up from his cabin an' along the deck, not troublin'
to cast an eye aloft. Whereby he missed what was happenin'.
Whereby he had just come abreast of the mainmast, when--sock at his
very feet--there drops a man. 'Twas Eli, that had missed his hold,
an' dropped somewhere on the back of his skull. 'Hallo!' says the
Cap'n, 'an' where the devil might _you_ come from?' Eli heard it,
poor fellow--an' says he, as I lifted him, 'If you please, sir, from
Botusfleming, three miles t'other side of Saltash.' 'Then you've had
a damn quick passage,' answers Cap'n Crang, an' turns on his heel.

"Well, sir, we all agreed the Cap'n might ha' showed more feelin',
specially as poor Eli'd broke the base of his skull, an' by eight
bells handed in the number of his mess. Five or six of us talked it
over, a