“Do, do try and speak low,” I whispered; “or we shall both be found out I’m stowing away myself!”

“Whew, laddie! How long will ye have been in Liverpool?”

“Only to-day. How long have you been here?”

“A week, and a sore week too.”

“You’ve no friends here, have you?”

“Freens, did ye say? I’ve no freens nearer than Scotland.”

“You must have had a hard time of it,” I whispered.

“Ye may say so. I’ve slept four nights in the docks, and never managed to stow till to-night. There’s a watchman about.”

“I know,” said I.

“I shouldn’t have got in to-night, but the misconducted body’s asleep, though I’ll say it’s the first time I saw him sleeping these four days. Eh, sirs! there’s an awful indifference to responsibility, when a man does a thing like yon. But it’ll be whisky, I’m thinking; for I heard him at clishmaclavers with one of these randy, drucken old Eirishers.”