“Then, why did you jine?” asked Hiram Bangs; “good cooks ain’t so common as you couldn’t git another vessel.”
“Why did yer jine, Mass’ Hiram, sin’ yer sailed wid him afore, an’ knowed he was de bery debble?”
“’Cause I wants ter go to ’Frisco,” replied the other; “an’, ’sides, I ain’t afeared of the old skunk. He’s more jaw nor actin’, an’ a good sailor, too, an’ no mistake, spite of his bad temper an’ hard words.”
“Golly, Hiram, nor ain’t I’se funky ob him, neider! My fader in Jamaiky he one big fetish man; an’ I not ’fraid ob Captain Snaggs, or de debbel, or any odder man; an’ I wants ter go ter ’Frisco, too, an’ dat’s de reason I’se hyar.”
Presently, when I had the chance of speaking to him, I told him of the captain’s suspicions; but he only laughed when I begged him to tell me if he had put anything into the cabin dinner, and what it was.
“Yah-yah, sonny! I’se tole yer so, I’se tole yer so—hoo-hoo!” he cried, doubling himself up and yelling with mirth. “I’se tole yer, ‘jess wait till bymeby, an’ yer see one big joke;’ but, chile, yer’d better not know nuffin ’bout it; fo’, den yer ken tell de troot if de cap’n ax, an’ say yer knows nuffin.”
This was no doubt sound advice; still, it did not satisfy my curiosity, and I was rather indignant at his not confiding in me. Of course, I was not going to tell the captain or anybody, for I wasn’t a sneak, at all events, if I was only a cabin boy!
Vexed at his not confiding in me, I turned to look over the side at the scene around.
The sun had not long set, and a bit of the afterglow yet lingered over the western horizon, warming up that portion of the sky; but, above, although the leaden clouds had all disappeared, being driven away to leeward long since, the shades of evening were gradually creeping up, and the sea and everything was covered with a purple haze, save where the racing waves rushed over each other in a mass of seething foam, that scintillated out coruscations of light—little oases of brightness in the desert of the deep.
As for the ship, she was a beauty, and sailed on, behaving like a clipper, rising and falling with a gentle rocking motion, when she met and passed the rollers that she overtook in her course, as they raced before her, trying to outvie her speed, and tossing up a shower of spray occasionally over her weather bow, which the fading gleams of crimson and gold of the sunset touched up and turned into so many little rainbows, that hovered over the water in front for a moment and then disappeared, as the vessel crushed them out of life with her cutwater.