Part 21 (1/2)

”You know I never miss my aim, you scoundrels The first h the head The food's good enough for better men than you, so be off forward, and let this be the last time I hear any complaint If not, look out for squalls”

The men stood irresolute, and no one liked to run the chance of having a pistol-bullet sent through his head

”Are you going, you villains?” thundered the captain, pointing his pistol at the boatswain

He used a good er expletives, which need not be repeated

The boatsas a bold fellow, but his courage gave way, and he stepped back The others, overawed by the determined manner of the captain, i that the pistol ether they retreated forward, tu over each other in their endeavour to put as wide a distance as possible between themselves and their now furious coreater amount of respect for him than I had ever done before His eye did not for a moment quail, his arhtest hesitation, the men, in the temper they were in, would have been upon him, and he would have lost his authority

Mark and I remained at one side of the deck, where we happened to be at the ti refused to take any part in the affair, whereby he gained still greater ill-will than before from his shi+ph kept down for a time, was by no h perhaps not altogether as bad as the samples exhibited to the captain

The third mate came forward much oftener than before, and tried hard to win back the ood-hu

”You see, Mr Siot to work hard, and except we gets good grub we can't do it,” I heard the boatswain re tone; ”it's very hard lines for us to have to eat rancid pork and weevilly bread, e knoell enough that the captain and rub in the cabin Share and share alike, and we sha'n't coets into harbour, and then we suppose that the captain will be getting good stores aboard and will serve out fresh etables”

”Oh! Of course he'll do that,” said Mr Siht the fleet is a just h he's a detero well, I hope, by-and-by”

I should have observed that our boatswain held a very different position a the crew to that occupied by a warrant officer on board a man-of-war He was merely one of the men, and was so called from certain duties he had to perform, and was a sort of link between the officers and the crew

We were now in the tropics When there was a breeze the heat was supportable enough, but when it fell calm we could scarcely bear our clothes on, and went about in shi+rts and trousers, with bare feet, and were glad to have the opportunity of getting into the shade The pitch boiled up out of the seams, and old Growles declared that he could cook a beefsteak on the capstan-head, if he only had a beefsteak to cook

The heat did not improve the teular hell afloat Matters were almost as bad with Tom Trivett, but he could hold his own better than we could

One day Mark came to me

”I say, dick,” he exclaio dropped thethat to-morroe're to cross the line I wonder what sort of place we shall get into on t'other side; as far as I can o over it for the first ti aboard to collect his dues”

I was surprised that Mark had never heard of the line, and so I tried to explain to hi on board, I knew that that was all nonsense, and so I told hi soed in their berth, into which they allowed no one but the taken his observations, gave notice that ere about to cross the line Mark and I had been sent aft, e heard a voice hail as if from under the bows

”What shi+p is that?”

”The 'E on the poop

”Where did you come from, and for what port are you bound?” asked the voice

”From Liverpool, and we're bound to Rio and round Cape Horn,” answered the captain

”All right, Captain Longfleet; with your leavesosters who have not crossed the line before, we shall have a word to say to them”