Bones ripped off an admirable stream of oaths.
"Might ha' told me," he complained. "Slack aft the longboat, a pair o' you. Is the jollyboat hove up? Aloft, topmen! Clear the braces. John, you'd better take the helm. I s'pose his lordship'll come up to con us out when he gets good and ready, seein' he's the only one o' us as knows his way about this blasted harbor!"
"Aye, aye, Bill."
Silver stumped out of the shadow for'ard into the glare of the big lanthorn that swung from a lower yard of the mainmast over the waist.
"But what about our pris'ners?" Silver asked.
Mr. Bones cast an uneasy glance at us.
"I can't have that there bloomin' volcano a-muckin' up the decks, let alone cabin or fo'csle. Leave 'em be, John. They can't do no harm, and any man as goes into that water tonight will freeze before he makes the shore."
"Spoke most accurate," Silver agreed in his cheerful way.
The rascal had a manner which contrived to invest whatever he said to you—to any one—with the implication that you were the most intelligent person he had ever had to do with and that it was an honor to obey and serve you.
He disappeared aft now, and Bones with him. I heard the latter continuing to shout orders; and there was a constant bustle of men running back and forth over the decks, a clattering of ropes and shrieking of falls and blocks. For-'ard sounded an ordered trampling of feet and a chorus of rough voices bellowing the wild sea-song I had heard in the Whale's Head Tavern: