Across the Salt Seas: A Romance of the War of Succession

Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=OsUsAAAAYAAJ (Princeton University)
Across the Salt Seas.
Dreams he of cutting foreign throats, of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades; of healths five fathoms deep.-- Shakespeare .
Phew! said the captain of La Mouche Noire , as he came up to me where I paced the deck by the after binacle. Phew! It is a devil in its death agonies. What has the man seen and known? Fore Gad! he makes me shudder!
Then he spat to leeward--because he was a sailor; also, because he was a sailor, he squinted into the compass box, then took off his leather cap and wiped the warm drops from his forehead with the back of his hand.
Death agonies! I said. So! it is coming to that. From what? Drinking, old age, or----
Both, and more. Yet, when I shipped him at Rotterdam, who would have thought it! Old and reverend-looking, eh, Mr. Crespin? White haired--silvery. I deemed him some kind of a minister--yet, now, hearken to him!
And as he spoke he went to the hatchway, bent his head and shoulders over it, and beckoned me to come and do likewise; which gesture I obeyed.
Then I heard the old man's voice coming forth from the cabin where they had got him, the door of it being open for sake of air, because, in this tossing sea, the ports and scuttles were shut fast--heard him screaming, muttering, chuckling and laughing; calling of healths and toasts; dying hard!
The balustrades! he screamed. Look to them. See! Three men, their hands stretched out, peering down into the hall; fingers touching. God! --he whispered this, yet still we heard-- how can dead men stand thus together, gazing over, glancing into dark corners, eyes rolling? See how yellow the mustee's eyes are! But still, all dead! Dead! Dead! Dead! Yet there they stand, waiting for us to come in from the garden. Ha! quick--the passado--one--two--in--out--good! through his midriff. Ha! Ha! Ha! and he laughed hideously, then went on: The worms will have a full meal. Or --after a pause, and hissing this: Was he dead before? Hast run a dead man through?