“But he was too fly for her, was my joker!
“‘You mustn’t speak to the man at the wheel!’ says he, gruffly; and so he got out cleverly from answering any more questions on the point—smart of him, wasn’t it?”
I could not help laughing at this story, the other hands joining in the merriment; all of us, though, wondering how Pat Doolan would take it.
The Irishman, however, did not consider there was anything personal in it. Other people’s pulls at the long-bow always seem much more apparent than one’s own!
“Ov coorse that chap was takin’ a rise out of the ould lady,” he said parenthetically; “but what I tould you ov the mule was thrue enough.”
“What! do you mean to say that you were sailing away from the carcase for three weeks and came across it again?” I inquired, with a smile.
“Not a doubt ov it,” replied the Irishman, stoutly, “and going good siven knots an hour by the log, too, at that! I rec’lect that v’yage o’ mine in that schooner well, too, by the same token! It was there I found that Manilla guernsey ov mine so handy ag’in’ the could.”
“A Manilla guernsey?” said Jorrocks, in much amazement. “I know what Manilla cables are, and I’ve heard tell o’ Manilla cigars, though I’ve never smoked ’em; but a Manilla guernsey—why, who ever came across sich an outlandish thing?”
“Be jabers, I have, boatswain,” cried Pat Doolan. “Sure, an’ I made it mysilf; so, if you’ll listen, I’ll till ye all about it.”
“Hooray, here’s another bender!” sang out the chaps standing by; but, seeing that the cook appeared as if he would turn rusty if they showed any further incredulity at his statements, they composed their faces—“looking nine ways for Sunday,” as the phrase goes; or, like the Carthaginians when the pious Aeneas was spinning that wonderful yarn of his which we read about in Virgil, in the presence of Queen Dido and her court, conticuere omnes et ora tenebant!