The men got the boats over as on the previous day. Yan Bol rolled up to me, who had come on deck long before sunrise, and said, “Mr. Fielding, how many cases vhas dere in tree tons?”
“About twenty,” said I, “they won’t all run alike in size. If they were all alike of course there’d be thirty.”
“Vell, ve takes twenty.”
“Yes, a little at a time, if you please. Two tons are mine. If you capsize, who bears the loss?”
“Dere vhas no capsize,” said he. “Look what a beautiful day she vhas! Und how many dollars, Mr. Fielding, vhas dere in tree ton?”
“One hundred and ten thousand dollars.”
He rounded his little eyes and smacked his huge lips, and could find no more to say than, “Vell, vell!”
He and Galen and three or four others shortly afterward went below and got into the lazarette, whence they handed out twenty cases of the silver. I feigned a prodigious interest, roaring out to the fellows in the boat, as I hung over the rail, to trim more by the head, to trim more by the stern, to keep the stuff amidships for the sake of stability; and then I bid Teach observe that three tons were to the full as much as should go per trip. “For,” says I, “look well, and you’ll find her a ton deeper than, in my opinion, her safety allows. But what are we sending ashore? Is it Thames ballast? Or is it something more precious than all your eyeballs put together? I’ll have my two tons go alone. No other man’s ton shall go along with mine,” and so I went on shouting.
All being ready the crew of the boat entered her. They were the same as on the preceding day. I regretted this, for I had hoped that Teach or Travers or Meehan—Call I did not fear—would have taken the place of Friend, who, as you know, was the mildest man of the whole bunch of rogues; but I kept my mouth shut; I durst make no suggestion that way. We are all good men, the fellows would have said; what reason has he in wishing Friend to remain?
Call was at the wheel. I sung out to Meehan to lay aft and loose the trysail, adding, that the others might hear me, that the brig wanted more after-sail to keep her head to. The three men lay aft, and in a few minutes the sail was set.