“What news?” I asked excitedly. “Do tell me, Mr. Triggs.”
“Well, I don’t know, I’m sure, if I oughtn’t to keep it to myself,” answered the gunner, trying to look very solemn. “Maybe ’twould be strong meat for babes, so to speak.”
“You’re positively insulting, Mr. Triggs! The midshipmen of the Rattler will hold a drumhead court-martial on you to-morrow if I’m not mistaken, and you may depend upon it the sentence will be a severe one.”
“I’m beginning to shake in my shoes at the very prospect of such a thing,” said the gunner, with a laugh; “and as I’m a married man with a family, I think I ought to be excused if I cave in.”
“Confide in me, and the matter shall go no further,” I exclaimed, with a patronizing air.
“I think I must have a couple of whiffs before I turn in,” said the gunner, proceeding to light his pipe. “’Tis against orders, I’m aware, but I rely on you, Mr. Darcy, not to split upon me to the officer of the watch.”
“You may smoke till you’re black in the face,” I rejoined irreverently, “so long as you heave ahead and tell me what I want to know.”
“You midshipmen are a terribly impatient lot of mortals—”
“That’s better than being prosy and tedious,” I interrupted. “Steam ahead full speed, Mr. Triggs, and keep a look-out for shoals.”
“So impatient that you’d try the temper of the quietest cow that ever chewed the cud,” continued the gunner emphatically; “and as to repartee, I’m jiggered if I think an Irish car-driver wouldn’t be out of the running with the dullest of you. Well, I’ll relieve your curiosity, Mr. Darcy, and the yarn is just this. Mr. Osborne, the surgeon of the Flying-fish, told our assistant-surgeon, who had been a-doctoring of his foot, that the captain had been questioning him about the value of the cargo that the mutineers had seized, and had mentioned that it was his intention to endeavour to track the rascals down and recover the booty. On the top of that I had a message late in the evening from the gunnery lieutenant that an armed expedition up country was in contemplation, and requesting me to keep a weather eye lifting on stores and ammunition and such like.”