He opened the door and looked in.
‘Vot, in Got’s name, iss happening?’ rumbled the deep voice of Peter Hemskirk over the military man’s shoulder.
The ship slightly leaned at that moment, and caused the Dutchman to put his weight against the colonel, with the consequence that the little soldier was shot into the cabin with Mynheer at his heels.
‘What’s this?’ cried the colonel.
‘I’ll teach you!’ gasped Riley.
‘Haven’t you had enough?’ shouted Greenhew.
‘Seberate ’em! seberate ’em!’ exclaimed Hemskirk. ‘Look, shentlemen, how Mr. Greenhew bleeds.’
‘What on earth is the matter?’ exclaimed some one at the door.
It was Mr. Emmett. He trembled, and was very pale. He had thrown his tragedian cloak over his shoulders, and looked a truly ludicrous object with a short space of his bare shanks showing and his feet in a pair of large carpet slippers. In fact, by this time the whole of the passengers were alarmed, the ladies looking out of their doors and calling, the men hustling into the passage to see, with the sound of Mr. Prance’s voice at the head of the steps of the hatch shouting down to know what the noise was about. It was more than I could stand. The figures of the colonel and the Dutchman and Emmett, not to mention Riley, coming on top of the absurdity of the fight, proved too much for me. I took one look at Greenhew, shot through the door, gained my cabin, and flung myself into my bunk, exhausted with laughter, and utterly incapable of answering the numberless questions which Colledge fired off at me.
The noise ceased after a while, but not before I heard the captain’s storming accents outside my berth. I could also hear the colonel complaining in strong language of so great an outrage as that of two young men fighting in the dead of night within the hearing of ladies. The old skipper insisted on one of the young fellows quitting the cabin and sharing the berth tenanted by Mr. Fairthorne. Both vehemently refused to budge. The captain then asked who struck the first blow. Riley answered that he had, and was beginning to explain, when old Keeling silenced him by saying that he would give him five minutes to retire to Mr. Fairthorne’s berth, and that if he had not cleared out by that time he would send for the boatswain and a sailor or two to show him the road. This ended the difficulty, as I was told next morning, and the rest of the night passed quietly enough.