"'Why, what's the matter?'
"'Why, sir, I've lost my call;[15] no wonder my pipe's put out.'
"'Is that all? You may thank Heaven you did not lose your life. You had little hope of saving it when we last parted.'
"'Indeed! why, then, it can't have been a dream, after all. Blowed if I don't think I'm a little crazy in my upper works; my head is all in a whirl, and there's fifty thousand sparks dancing before my eyes. I say, Mr Dalzell, what was that you said about losing life, and all that gammon? Ax your pardon, sir—hopes no offence,' continued he, laying his hand with drunken familiarity upon my shoulder. 'Holloa! why, you're as wet as a half-wrung swab, and I'm not much better myself! What's the meaning of that?'
"'Why, the meaning of it is, that we have both had a most providential escape from drowning. You must be crazy, indeed, if you have already forgot the sad events of the last few hours. When you were swept off the wreck of the poor old Dareall, I little expected to see you again. I could almost have sworn that I saw you go down.'
"'The wreck!—ay, I remember it all now! Providential escape, indeed. Only think of a man, as my old father used to say, putting an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains! I had clean forgotten all about it. Howsoever, I'll take my 'davy I was so full of water, that, afore I knowed what I was about, I took rum enough in to make me a tumbler—ha, ha!'
"'You seem to treat the matter very lightly, Telford; I see nothing laughable in it.'
"'Why, Lord love your honour, when the grog's in, the wit's out, you know, as the old song says.'
"'But where did you get the grog? You were sober enough, and sad enough, goodness knows, when we parted; and how did you escape?'
"'Why, your honour, I rode ashore on the back of a breaker,[16] and, as soon as I landed, I knocked my horse on the head, and found a drop of capital rum inside, and, as I was devilish cold and wet, I made a little too free with it mayhap.'