74 NIGHTS IN THE GALLEY. 



of surprising the " greenhorns/' by exercising the prerogative be- 

 longing only to those who have doubled the Cape. 



"Oh, lots of time,, bo'," said Jack, " I HEERD the first Leaftenant 

 say he would not pipe down till three bells, and it's only just 

 gone one." 



" Well, lads, did I ever tell you of the mutiny on board o' the 

 Comus?" 



" No, no ; let's have it Will," said the listeners, who were quite 

 enamoured of mutinies since Jack's yarn. 



" Well, lads, the Comus, you know, was one o' your thirty-sixes, 

 and the time as I was in her was commanded by Captain Smith, a 

 reg'lar Tartar I can tell you that, though not so bad as Captain 

 Pigot ; he was as smart a sailor as ever stepped between decks, and a 

 reg'lar fire-eater ; he feared neither God or Devil. He was the man 

 as fought the Milbrook ten-gun schooner against a privateer carrying 

 thirty guns, and thrashed her too aye, did he. Well ; it was just 

 arter the mutiny, when every body in the fleet was discontented and 

 ready for another row, we was sent away with about forty men that 

 the Admiral sent on board, 'cause he said Captain Smith was the man 

 for taming them. Well ; we went away to Malta. Captain Smith, 

 for all he was such a Tartar, was liked by all hands ; for he didn't 

 bully, he only made us do our duty; but since the forty new hands 

 had come on board every thing went on differently ; they were always 

 getting drunk at night, and getting five dozen next forenoon. The 

 boatswain began to talk with the men, and advise them to follow the 

 example of the fleet. At last, almost the whole ship's company had 

 agreed to murder the captain and the rest of the officers, and run 

 away with the ship. But nobody could settle how it should be done. 

 The keys of the magazine were always in the captain's cabin, and all 

 the cutlasses were in the gunner's store-room ; they had been taken 

 from over the guns ever since the mutiny in the fleet. The captain 

 always slept with a pair of pistols on his pillow, and he had given par- 

 ticular orders that nobody should enter his cabin without being intro- 

 duced by the first leaftenant. Well ; all this made it hard work ; no- 

 body knew what to do. At last, the boatswain tried to gain the joeys ; 

 but this was no go. They were all ' pauled' now. The next thing they 

 tried was to get me over. I was captain's coxswain, and they thought 

 I should be of use. The boatswain was the first man that spake to 

 me about it. I told him at once I would have nothing to do with it, 

 'cause I liked the skipper ; he was a good feller on the whole, and if 

 a man did his duty he had nothing to fear. The boatswain only 

 laughed at me, and said he would cut my throat. So I told him, 

 without he promised not to have any thing to do with it, and prevent 



the others, I would tell the captain. He was a d d cunning chap ; 



he pretended to hesitate, and at last told me he would think of it, arid 

 give me an answer to-morrow night. So as I did not wish to get all 

 the fellers into a row, I didn't say nothing about it ; but I suspected 

 the boatswain, so I kept a sharp look out to windward, for I was de- 

 termined to stand by the skipper. 



" When to-morrow came, the boatswain says to me, ' Will Gibbon,' 

 says he, ( I'se been a-thinking about what you was a saying of, and 



