Not long after the conversation I have mentioned, Larry came up to me.
“I’ve been after talking, Misther Terence, with some of those black gentlemen, and shure if they’re from the old country they’ve forgotten all about it, which no raal Irishman would ever do, I’ll stake my davey!” he exclaimed. “They’ve never heard of Limerick, or Cork, or Waterford, or the Shannon, or Ballinahone, and that proves to me that they couldn’t have been in the old country since they were born. And now, Misther Terence dear, you were joking shure,” he added, giving me one of his comical looks.
“Well, Larry,” I said, “it’s a satisfaction to know that it will take us a long time to turn into niggers, or to forget old Ireland.”
As no one was near, I asked him how Dan Hoolan and the other pressed men were behaving.
“That’s just what I wanted to be speaking to you about, Misther Terence,” he answered. “I’m after thinking that they’ll not be on board many days if they get a chance of slipping on shore. I heard them one day talking about it in Irish, forgetting that I understood what they were saying; and as we had a hand in the taking of them, says I to myself, we’ll not let you go so aisy, my boys, and I’ll be after telling Misther Terence about it.”
“You have acted rightly, Larry,” I answered. “It’s the duty of every seaman to prevent mutiny or desertion, and if you hadn’t told me the fellows might have got off, though, to be sure, the best of them are king’s hard bargains.”
I took an early opportunity of telling Mr Saunders.
“Thank you, my lad,” he answered; “I’ll take care that an eye is kept upon them.”
Soon afterwards, while looking over the side, I saw a dark, triangular object gliding by at no great distance from the ship. It went about when it got under the stern, and appeared again on the other side. Mr Saunders saw it also.
“Lads,” he said, “do you know what that is? You may have heard of Port Royal Jack. That’s him. He’s especially fond of seamen’s legs, and if any of you were to go overboard, he’d snap you up in a minute.”