"Do it? Oh! well—anything for variety, I s'pose," returned the sailor, with a growl which had reference to internal disarrangements.
"Is it often as dark as this in the daytime, an' is the sun usually green?" he asked carelessly, more for the sake of distracting the mind from other matters than for the desire of knowledge.
"Sometime it's more darker," replied the old man. "I've seed it so dark that you couldn't see how awful dark it was."
As he spoke, a sound that has been described by ear-witnesses as "deafening" smote upon their tympanums, the log on which they sat quivered, the earth seemed to tremble, and several dishes in a neighbouring hut were thrown down and broken.
"I say, old man, suthin' busted there," remarked the sailor, taking the pipe from his mouth and quietly ramming its contents down with the end of his blunt forefinger.
The Malay looked grave.
"The gasometer?" suggested the sailor.
"No, that never busts."
"A noo mountain come into action, p'raps, an' blow'd its top off?"
"Shouldn't wonder if that's it—close at hand too. We's used to that here. But them's bigger cracks than or'nar'."