‘A pitiful trick for a sleeper to fall into,’ said I. ‘I like your show so little, Greenhew, that I wish to see no more of it.’
‘Oh, nonsense!’ he exclaimed; ‘let’s keep him caper-cutting a while longer. I’ll have a regular performance here every night. It shall be the talk of the ship, by George!’
As he spoke these words, Riley uttered a low cry, opened his eyes full upon us, stared a moment with the bewilderment of a man who has not all his senses, then sat upright, running his gaze over his bedclothes.
‘What is the matter?’ he exclaimed, looking around at us. ‘Who has been’——
The light and expression of a full mind entered his eyes. He threw his feet over on to the deck and stood up.
‘Have I been making a fool of myself in my sleep, Dugdale?’ said he.—I was at a loss for an answer.—He proceeded: ‘I know my weakness. I have heard of it often enough—at school—from my mother—again and again since, Dugdale. Greenhew has brought you here to watch me. And that means,’ cried he, turning fiercely upon Greenhew, ‘that you have been exercising your humour upon me in my sleep, and instead of compassionating a painful and humiliating infirmity, you have’——
His temper choked him. He clenched his fist and let fly at friend Greenhew right between the eyes. Down went the Civil Service man like a statue knocked off its pedestal; but he was up again in a minute; and neither of them wanting in spunk, at it they went! It was enough to make any man die of laughter to see Riley’s very imperfectly clad figure dancing and manœuvring round Greenhew with the gestures of a cannibal at a feast-dance, yet all the while handsomely plumping his fists into his antagonist, who hammered wildly in return with a ruddy nose and one eye already slowly closing. I threw myself between them, but could do little for laughing. They fought in silence, so far at least as their voices were concerned; but the hard thumps they dealt the bulkhead as they went pommelling each other from side to side, not to mention their frequent capsizals over boxes, the flight of any objects, such as boots, which their toes happened to strike against, might well have caused the occupants of the adjacent cabins to believe that if this scramble did not signify a rush of people escaping from a sinking ship, then it must certainly mean a desperate mutiny amongst the crew accompanied by all the disorder of a struggle for life.
‘For heaven’s sake, stop this!’ I shouted; ‘consider how terrified the ladies will be. Greenhew, cease it, man. Riley, get you into your bunk again’——
Here there was a violent thumping upon the door of the cabin.
‘Anybody fallen mad here?’ was bawled in the familiar notes of Colonel Bannister, ‘or is it murder that’s being done?’