'He is drunk! I will have a little talk with him by and by. I put you two into his care and he gets drunk!'
He drew on his sou'wester and stood up, holding by a stanchion.
'Are you going on deck, Edward?' asked his wife.
'Certainly I am.'
'You'll be swept overboard.'
'Not I. I'll rout out a couple of the men and we'll have this carpet up. Pah! how the salt water stinks! They shall light ye a fire too. Boil some coffee, Mary. You shall have what you want. I doubt but the galley's stove. The longboat's safe, but the quarter boats are gone. She wants steadying—she wants steadying;' and making a step or two he sprang up the companion ladder and was gone.
CHAPTER IX DISMASTED
Captain Burke's manner of going persuaded me his mind was unhinged. He had talked with excitement, shouted at his wife, his eyes had been full of fire, and still it did not seem that he had fully grasped the whole dreadful meaning of the disaster.