“All the better, sir,” said Peace, “all the more interesting. We lead in this country such a monotonous, hum-drum sort of life that there are positively no incidents worth recording.”
“I don’t know that,” observed Corbet. “None of us can pass through life, I expect, without meeting with some strange adventure, without gaining some experience.”
“Oh, we gain experience without doubt, Corbet,” said Whittock. “It is hardly possible for it to be otherwise.”
“Well,” said Corbet, “as our friend has given you a little of his own experience, I don’t mind following suit. I don’t mean with cards, for that’s not much in my line, but I’ll just give you another narrative of facts.”
“Hear, hear. Fire away, cap’en,” cried Whittock and one or two others. “Anything to keep the game alive.”
“During the milder months of the twelve constituting a year I occupied myself in running a small steamer from Puntsville to B——, carrying the mails, such as they were, freight, and any chance passengers, which, I assure you, were exceedingly scarce.
“These trips were generally of a monotonous character to the crew of the ‘Silver Arrow,’ consisting of the engineer, myself, and an Ethiopian deck-hand.
“Once, however, something extraordinary out of the general routine of rounding points, making fast to the long, straggling, desolate wooden piers of the intermediate landings, or the thousand and one little nothings, peculiar to the voyage, occurred, which came near resulting in my death, besides putting me to serious inconvenience, and in a not very reputable predicament.
“One bright June afternoon the ‘Silver Arrow’ backed from her wharfage at B——, sped gallantly down the sunny channel, lined on either side by rows of carved, lettered, gilt dingy sterns of all nations, and soon, with her bright new paint reflecting in her wake, and her streamers flying, was going down the wide river.
“In high good humour was I, for besides an unusual quantity of freight, three passengers had booked themselves for Puntsville, full fare paid, intending, as they remarked, to participate in a hunting expedition in the game-abounding district of the lower river.