Though they strap for it, all the three,
There’s stout fellows plenty are left in the world,
In spite of old Tyburn tree!’
I would the reader could see the great cabin with all the drunkards in it, as now it appeared. Some sat in sodden solemnity muttering to themselves; some rolled, cursing and fighting, on the floor; others disputed and drank, trying, as it were, to outscream their adversaries. The watch on deck, who had but newly come down, said not much, but drank off great goblets of spirits, as if it were a race who should be intoxicated first; and so, in good sooth, in a very short space of time, the new comers were as madly drunk as the original revellers. But in all the insanity of the excitement, Jerry kept the lead. His face was all flushed and distorted with the liquor, and he champed foam and saliva from his mouth—
‘Here,’ he roared, ‘a health—to the—good fellows—who cry stand and deliver—to the Dons. Bumpers, and no heel-taps! Huzza! up yees out!’
And following his example, all the rest drained their glasses, and flung them in a volley over their shoulders.
‘More honour—to that toast,’ hiccuped out the brutal man; and, suddenly drawing two pistols from his belt, he fired them right and left into the air.
‘Huzza!’ shouted the others—‘huzza!’ and in a minute knives were flashing, and, amid shouts and yells, the cabin rung to some half dozen of pistol shots fired in imitation of the leader of the debauch, in the midst of which a wild screech rose from the darkest corner of the cabin, and Josiah Ward staggered out, his face all blood, and fell at full length on the floor.
‘Ho! ho!’ shouted Jerry, with an insane roar of laughter; ‘a bullet found its billet. Caulk the shot-hole with the stopper of a brandy flask; it will be better in a man’s flesh than in a bottle to-night.’
A scream of laughter answered this proposal, and some half-dozen of the company getting up, either to aid or mock the wounded man, fell in a heap, shouting and swearing above him.