nocent as may be; both ends are sealed up with bits of the pith, and
when you open one end you find that all the joints have been bored
through, and the cane is full of rum. But mind, lads, you are fools if you
touch it; it is new and strong and rank, and a bottle of it would knock
you silly. And that is not the worst of it, for fever catches hold of you,
and fever out there ain't no joke. You eats a good dinner at twelve
o'clock, and you are buried in the palisades at six; that's called yellow
jack. It is a country where you can enjoy yourselves reasonable with
fruit, and perhaps a small sup of rum, but where you must beware of
drinking; if you do that you are all right. The islands are beautiful,
downright beautiful; there ain't many places which I troubles myself to
look at, but the West Indies are like gardens with feathery sorts of
trees, and mountains, and everything that you can want in nature."

"It is very hot, isn't it, Bill?"

"It ain't, so to speak, cool in summer-time. In winter it is just right,
but in summer you would like to lie naked all day and have cold water
poured over you. Still, one gets accustomed to it in time. Then, you see,
there is always excitement of some kind. There are pirates and Frenchmen,
and there are Spaniards, whom I regard as a cross between the other two.
They hide about among the islands and pop out when you least expect them.
You always have to keep your eyes in your head and your cutlass handy when
you go ashore. The worst of them are what they call mulattoes; they are a
whity-brown sort of chaps, neither one thing nor the other, and a nice
cut-throat lot they are. A sailor who drinks too much and loses his boat
is as like as not to be murdered by some of them before morning. I hate
them chaps like poison. There are scores of small craft manned by them
which prey upon the negroes, who are an honest, merry lot, and not bad
sailors either in their way. Sometimes four or five of these pirate craft
will go together, and many of them are a good size and carry a lot of
guns. They make some island their head-quarters. Any niggers there may be
on it they turn into slaves. There are thousands of these islands, so at
least I should say, scattered about, some of them mere sand-spots, others
a goodish size.

"Well, I hope it is the West Indies. There is plenty of amusement and
plenty of fighting to be done there, and I should like to know what a
sailor can want more."

There was a hum o