THEY MANAGED TO SEPARATE THE COMBATANTS.
'I say again what I have said,' exclaimed Ortop, as he was pushed to his seat. 'My boy told me all about it; and I'll have a reckoning with you another day, Mr. Pickard.'
It was some time before they were quieted; but a forecastle man, with a powerful voice, contrived to bring things round by singing a song in heave anchor fashion, the chorus of which was taken up noisily by most present. He was followed by an old salt, who had swallowed the handspike, as the sailors say when any one has retired from the service, and who perpetrated with a nasal twang a doggerel ballad, immensely popular amongst his class, which was followed by a furious rattling of tankards and glasses, in token of approbation; and, having 'filled again,' they opened a running fire of convivial talk, which gradually brought round the engrossing topic of the evening.
'I should think,' said a little man in the company, 'that the gale was heavy enough to send any vessel down, without laying violent hands on her.'
'So it was,' replied Pickard, 'and scuttling would have been like cutting the throat of a dead man.'
'Suppose he did scuttle her,' exclaims a wiry-haired mason, 'that's old Phillipson's look-out. The vessel belonged to him, and if Stauncy satisfies the merchant that's enough.'
'And who's to satisfy the widows and orphans, or who's to satisfy the insurance office?' said Ortop, in a sarcastic, bitter tone. 'I'll get that question answered before long. I owe Stauncy a grudge, and I'll not forget it.'
'If there's sin anywhere in this matter,' the blacksmith remarked, 'it lies with the old scoundrel on the quay, who'd sell the life of any one for a groat. He's made a market out of many a vessel and many a man before now, and little cares who suffers as long as he fingers the gold.'