I begin to doubt, gentlemen, whether this fellow be not in earnest: in
which case you may nave an opportunity of witnessing how ships are
handled, when seamen have their management. I have no objection, to
setting the experience of a poor come-and-go sort of a fellow, like
myself, in opposition to the geometry and Hamilton Moore of a young
man-of-war's-man. I dare say, now, yonder chap is a lord, or a lord's
progeny, while poor Jack Truck is just as you see him."
"Do you not think half-an-hour of compliance on our part might bring the
matter to an amicable conclusion a once?" said Paul Blunt. "Were we to run
down to him, the object of his pursuit could be determined in a
few minutes."
"What! and abandon poor Davis to the rapacity of that rascally attorney?"
generously exclaimed Sir George Templemore. "I would prefer paying the
port-charges myself, run into the handiest French port, and let the honest
fellow escape!"
"There is no probability that a cruiser would attempt to take a mere
debtor from a foreign vessel on the open sea."
"If there were no tobacco in the world, Mr. Blunt, I might feel disposed
to waive the categories, and show the gentleman that courtesy," returned
the captain, who was preparing another cigar. "But while the cruiser might
not feel authorised to take an absconding debtor from this vessel, he
might feel otherwise on the subject of tobacco, provided there has been an
information for smuggling.
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