Now take them to the boat, and put them in a safe place; and
then come back."

"I say, Bill, look ye here," said the coxswain to one of the sailors,
who was lying down on the thwarts of the boat, holding up the coral to
him in a contemptuous manner--"what the hell d'ye think this is? Why,
it's a hanimal!"

"A what?"

"I'll be blow'd if the doctor don't say it's a hanimal!"

"No more a hanimal than I am," replied the sailor, laying his head down
again on the thwarts, and shutting his eyes.

In a few minutes Marshall returned to the surgeon, who, tired with
clambering over the rocks, was sitting down to rest himself a little.
"Well, Marshall, I hope you have not hurt what I gave into your charge."

"Hurt 'em!--why, sir, a'ter what you told me, I'd as soon have hurt a
cat."

"What, you are superstitious on that point, as seamen generally are."

"Super-what, Mr Macallan? I only knows, that they who ill-treats a
cat, comes worst off. I've proof positive of that since I have been in
the service. I could spin you a yarn."

"Well now, Marshall, pray do. Come, sit down here--I am fond of proof
positive. Now, let me hear what you have to say, and I'll listen
without interrupting you."

The coxswain took his seat, as Macallan desired, and, taking the quid of
tobacco out of his cheek, and laying it down on the rock beside him,
commenced as follows:--

"Well now, d'ye see, Mr Macallan, I'll just exactly tell you how it
was, and then I leaves you to judge whether a cat's to be sarved in that
way. It was when I belonged to the _Survellanty_ frigate, that we were
laying in Cawsand Bay, awaiting for sailing orders. We hadn't dropped
the anchor more than a week, and there was no liberty ashore. Well,
sir, the purser found out that his steward was a bit of a rascal, and
turns him adrift. The ship's company knew that long afore; for it was
not a few that he had cheated, and we were all glad to see him and his
traps handed down the side. Now, sir, this here fellow had a black
cat--but it warn't at all like other cats. When it was a kitten, they
had cut off his tail close to its starn, and his ears had been shaved
off just as close to his figure-head, and the hanimal used to set up on
his hind legs and fight like a rabbit. It had quite lost its natur, as
it were, and looked, for all the world, like a little imp of darkness.
It always lived in the purser's steward's room, and we never seed him
but when we went dow