"You don't mean to say you don't know!" exclaimed Bumpus.
"No, indeed, I don't."
"Why, it means being hanged. I was so near hanged, just a day or two back, that I've had an 'orrible pain in my neck ever since at the bare thought of it! But who's your friend?" said Bumpus, turning to the boatswain.
"Oh! I forgot him,—he's the boatswain of the Talisman. Dick Price, this is my friend John Bumpus."
"Glad to know you, Dick Price."
"Same to you, and luck, John Bumpus."
The two sea-dogs joined their enormous palms, and shook hands cordially.
After these two had indulged in a little desultory conversation, Will Corrie, who, meanwhile, consulted with Alice in an undertone, brought them back to the point that was uppermost in his mind.
"Now," said he, "it comes to this,—we must not let Gascoyne be hanged."
"Why, Corrie!" cried Bumpus, in surprise, "that's the very thing I was a-thinkin' of w'en I comed up here and found Miss Alice under the tree."