"We all think we are bound down the coast of Africa."
"Well, don't you like the idea?" laughed the mate.
"No, sir; we do not," responded Jack, so decidedly that my courage rose a little.
"You don't? That's because you don't understand it."
"We think we understand the business well enough, sir."
"Don't you want to make five hundred or a thousand dollars out of a three months' cruise?"
"Not slaving, sir," answered Jack, with another scrape of his foot, and a low bow.
"Come, let's splice the main brace, and we will talk it over another time," said the mate, as the cabin steward appeared with a pitcher of rum.
"Here, Jack," said the mate, as he took the glass from the steward, and filled it two thirds full of the reddish poison.
"Not any for me, thank your honor," replied Jack, to my astonishment.