"For," said the brutal geologist, "if you will agree to these terms, we shall be glad of your advice and assistance, Captain Prowse."
"I'll think of it," returned the skipper sulkily.
"All right," said the rude geologist, "take a day or two to think it over."
"Oh, Lord," said Prowse hastily. "I've thought of it, and I agree."
And when he came on deck the savage and ferocious scientific captains remarked in a friendly manner that it was a fine evening.
"Damme," said the one-time skipper, "I'm blowed if I ain't the crew of the Kamma Funder."
THE REHABILITATION OF THE VIGIA.
The mate or the Palembang walked the weather side of the poop, and felt just then that he was full up to the back teeth of the mighty sea and all its works. He yearned for Leith Walk or Wapping; to lie on a hot dry beach would be heaven, for the hot wet south-west monsoon was blowing the Palembang towards Bombay, and the Maldivhs were on the starboard beam.
Jack Wilson propped his eyes open and cursed the slow passage of time towards midnight. As he peered down below at the lighted clock he was inclined to swear that the second mate had come out and stopped it. But presently it was five minutes to twelve, and to his disgust sleepiness passed away as his relief stumbled up the poop ladder and came aft. "Jerusalem, but it's dark," said the second greaser, as he looked up aloft and round about him.