I let fall the lid of the locker, and sat upon it, poising the bottle of rum, and blowing a great cloud with my pipe.
'Where is Miss Nielsen?' he exclaimed.
'Gone to bed,' I answered. 'Punmeamootty, reach me a glass out of that rack.'
The man, in taking the tumbler, reeled to a violent heel of the deck, and let it fall.
'D—n it!' roared the Captain, 'you clumsy son of a bitch! What more damage is to be done?' His sudden passion made his fixed smile extraordinarily grotesque. 'Get a basket and pick up that stuff, and bear a hand!' he thundered. 'Has Miss Helga a light?'
'Yes,' I answered. 'I have seen to that.'
'But she may fall—she may let the lantern drop!'
'She is a better sailor than you,' I called out; 'she knows how to keep her feet. Punmeamootty! a tumbler, if you please, before you begin picking up that stuff.'
'I must see that Miss Nielsen's lantern is safe,' said the Captain; and he was coming forward as though to pass through the cuddy door. I sprang to my feet and confronted him on widely stretched legs.
'No man,' said I, 'enters Miss Nielsen's sleeping quarters while she and I remain in this ship.'