Mr. White always 'opined'; it was as favourite a word with him as 'exploit' is with a socialist orator, or as 'transpire' is with a third-rate journalist.
'I opine there will be serious difficulty,' repeated the chief.
'Would you mind, sir, if I told you my opinion of Mr. Fortescue?' asked the second.
'Not in the least,' said Mr. White.
'Then I think he's the biggest ass I ever set eyes on,' said the disgusted Forder, 'and I hope some of that bally gang will take away that glass eye of his and his revolver and throw 'em both overboard.'
'I opine it would do him good,' said Mr. White pensively.
'I'm darn well sure it would, sir,' said Forder; 'I could have put up with old Mr. Fortescue, though I never knew any good come from havin' owners on board, but his son and heir gives me the hump. It's bad enough havin' a cargo of horses, and worse havin' these pit scrapin's to tend 'em, but Mr. Bertie makes me tired. If he gets into trouble with these Texans for'ard, the old man can read him out of it with hymns and the Pilgrim's Progress for all I care. I've been in the West, and I know he can't bull-doze this crowd. Oh, he makes me weary!'
When there is trouble in a ship, there's trouble for all hands. And trouble was certainly breezing up to windward, because the Pilgrim struck in on a southern edge of a cyclonic disturbance coming up from the eastward on its way north-west, and the westerly gale that played with them made matters extremely lively for every one. It was the purest misfortune for all on board the Pilgrim that Bertie was not sick, though he had never been in bad weather before. It increased his good opinion of himself, which stood in no need of any increase. He swaggered as if he were an old salt, and had been pickled in the year of Trafalgar.
'All these brutes forward are sick, Captain Scantlebury,' said Bertie haughtily. 'They are a lot of useless scum—aw. Those that aren't ill don't know a horse from a mule, and those that know a mule from a horse are too ill to know themselves from a bale of hay.'
'Don't be too hard on 'em, sir,' urged the old skipper. 'This won't last long, and when they get over bein' sick, they'll be all right.'