"D——e," said the admiral, "here's a gang of pirates; we shall be boarded and carried before we know where we are, Jack."
"Ay ay, sir," said Jack.
"And is that all you've got to say, you lubber, when you see your admiral in danger? You'd better go and make terms with the enemy at once."
"Really, this is serious," said Henry; "they shout for Varney. Can Mr. Chillingworth have been so mad as to adopt this means of stopping the duel?"
"Impossible," said Marchdale; "if that had been his intention, he could have done so quietly, through the medium of the civil authorities."
"Hang me!" exclaimed the admiral, "if there are any civil authorities; they talk of smashing somebody. What do they say, Jack? I don't hear quite so well as I used."
"You always was a little deaf," said Jack.
"What?"
"A little deaf, I say."
"Why, you lubberly lying swab, how dare you say so?"