“Ha!” came in a deep sigh, and I could not help feeling that a glass just then would be very nice.
“Will you give the order, sir?” said Jecks insinuatingly. “Billy Wakes is a werry trustworthy sort of chap.”
“Yes,” I said; “but he’d forget to come back, and then I should have to send you to find him, and then the others to find you. I know. There, you can light your pipes if you like.”
“And werry thankful for small mussies,” said the old sailor, taking out his pipe. “You won’t want no matches, lads. Fill up and hold the bowls in the sun.”
They lit up, and began smoking, while I watched the long narrow street down which the captain and his escort must come.
“Think we shall have to land the prisoners, sir?” said Jecks, after a smoky silence.
“I suppose so,” I replied. “I expect that is what the captain has gone ashore about.”
“Don’t seem much good, that, sir. We takes ’em, and they’ll let ’em go, to start a fresh lot o’ plundering junks.”
“Thundering junks, matey?” said Billy Wakes.
“I said plundering, Billy, and meant it. Your eddication ain’t what it oughter be.”