d to the variety of
amusements, and "all for nine cents," as Joseph had said half a dozen
times during the afternoon to his party, and a dozen times more during
the evening. At half past ten the students returned to the squadron,
for by that time they had seen all they desired.

CHAPTER XVI.

AN EXCURSION TO KLAMPENBORG AND ELSINORE.

Peaks sat near the brig and read his book, which he had procured from
the librarian in anticipation of a dull and heavy afternoon. Clyde sat
in his cage, watching the boatswain. The book was evidently a very
interesting one, for the reader hardly raised his eyes from it for a
full hour, and then only to bestow a single glance upon the occupant
of the ship's prison. The volume was Peter Simple, and the boatswain
relished the adventures of the hero. Once in a while his stalwart
frame was shaken by an earthquake of laughter, for he had a certain
sense of dignity which did not permit him to laugh outright all alone
by himself, and so the shock was diffused through all his members, and
his body quaked like that of a man in the incipient throes of a fever
and ague fit. The magnanimous conduct of O'Brien, who flogged Peter
for seasickness, simply because he loved him, proved to be almost too
much for the settled plan of the boatswain, and it was with the utmost
difficulty that he restrained an outbreak of laughter.

For a full quarter of an hour Clyde convinced himself that he was
entirely satisfied with the situation. The brig was not a bad place,
or, at least, it would not be, if the boatswain would only leave the
steerage and allow the prisoner to be by himself. He wished very much
to try the carpenter's saw upon the slats of his prison. At the end of
the second quarter of an hour, the Briton was slightly nervous; the
close of the third found him rather impatient, and at the expiration
of an hour, he was decidedly provoked with Peaks for staying where he
was so long. When the stout sentinel glanced at him, he flattered
himself with a transitory hope; but the boatswain only changed his
position slightly, and still appeared to be as deeply absorbed as ever
in the book.

Clyde was disgusted, and emphatically angry at the end of another half
hour. The brig was a vile place, and putting a free-born Briton into
such a den was the greatest indignity which had yet been offered to
him. It was even worse than ordering him to be silent, or to go
forward. It was an insult which required both