"Say, Billy, see this."
He shook up the runner who was taking a caulk on a hard bench, having been engaged between four and six in getting three drunken men on board the Wanderer. It is often easier to get a dozen amenable to reason than three, just as it is easier to handle many sheep than few. He was very tired and sulky.
"Well, wo'd's up now?" he grunted.
"Hell is up, and flamin'," said Tom. "You ain't forgot the admiral by any chance, now?"
Billy woke as suddenly as if he had been sleeping on the look-out and had been found hard and fast by the mate.
"Eh, what, has the California turned up?"
"You bet she has," said Tom. And he burst into laughter. "What d'ye reckon he was on board of her when she came to N' York?"
"Cook's mate?"
"No, captain, captain! Think of that. And he says he don't know who laid him out and put him aboard of her."
Billy rose.