"And pistols," interrupted another.
"No; d—n your pistols; they make too much noise; they're all talk and no cider; besides, they miss fire half the time; and before you get ready for another shot, Don Dego has his thundering baggonet right in your g—ts; and then where are you?"
"Now you may all of you," said an old seaman, "you may all of you just pipe belay with your jaw-tackle-falls. Captain Williams knows what he's about, and you'll know before morning what he's up to. You'd better take a fool's advice, and catch a cat-nap before you're called away. The boats a'n't histed up, and when did you ever know 'em in the water after dark since we've been lying here?" So saying, the veteran disappeared down the fore-ladder.
"There goes old Jemmy Bush, starn foremost down the fore-scuttle, like a land-bear going into his hole."
"Well," said another smart, active young seaman, the favorite of the crew; "I shall take old Jemmy's advice, and go and get forty winks in my hammock. If there's more or less of us sent on this expedition, we sha'n't be called away till ten or eleven o'clock, when all the Degos are asleep, and there's nothing awake in the town but fleas and cats."
The proposition for sleeping prevailed, and the groups on the forecastle began to disappear, when the voice of the second mate was heard:
"For'ard there!"
"Sir, sir," answered half a dozen eager voices at once.
"Who has the anchor watch?"
"Bill Thompson and Sam Hughes, sir."