“And are you really the only sailors on board?” I said, much surprised at this piece of information, being under the impression that the others had all gone below.
“Iv’ry ha’porth,” he answered; “that is, lavin’ out ye’re brother middies, or ‘foorst-class apprentices’ loike y’rsilf, Misther Gray-ham—faix, though, they aren’t sailors yit by a long shot. There’s that Portygee stooard, too, that the cap’an’s got sich a fancy for, I’m sure I can’t till why, as he’s possissed av the timper av ould Nick himsilf, an’ ain’t worth his salt, to me thinkin’!”
“And is that the captain up there now with Mr Mackay?” I asked.
“That the skipper? Bless ye, no, me lad—that’s ownly the river pilot!”
“Where is the captain, then?” was my next query, without stopping to think.
“By the powers, ye bates Bannagher for axin’ quistions, Misther Gray-ham!” cried Tim, amused at my cross-examination of him—just as if he were in a court of justice, as he afterwards said when he brought up the matter one day.—“Sure, how can I till where he or any other mother’s son is that I can’t say before my eyes? I can till you, though, where I belaives him to be this blissid minnit; an’ that is, by the ‘Crab an’ Lobster’ at Gravesend, lookin’ out for to say if he can say the Silver Quane a-sailin’ down the sthrame.”
“And will he come on board there?” I asked.
“Arrah, will a dook swim?” replied the boatswain in Irish fashion. “Av coorse he will, in a brace av shakes. Ould Jock Gillespie ain’t the sort av skipper to lit the grass grow under his cawbeens, whin he says his ship forninst him!”
“Oh, he’ll come on board at Gravesend,” I repeated after him, my mind greatly relieved; for I had been much concerned as to how and when the captain would make his appearance as well as the remainder of the crew, having read enough about ships to know that the Silver Queen could not well be navigated with such a small number of hands as were only in her then. “And will he bring any more sailors with him?”
“Aye, sonny, the howl bilin’ av the crew, barrin’ us chaps here alriddy. Yis, an’ our say pilot will come aboord there, the river one lavin’ us there.”