"
"Mr. Officer," yelled he, "'crazy!' 'sense!' 'absurd!' By G--d, sir, if
an English man-of-war were here, no Yankee dare set foot on this deck,
sir. Who are you?" "Captain," I said to the man, "it is time this piece
of folly were ended. Now understand me. Look at that clock: it wants
twelve minutes to eleven; I want to see your papers; I give you two
minutes to produce them in. If, at ten minutes to eleven, the papers are
not forthcoming, I shall adopt measures to place them in my possession."
I then sat down. Question after question did the worthy skipper ask, but
no reply did I deign to give. At length it wanted but a few seconds to
the time specified, when with a bad grace the irate Master produced his
key, unlocked his safe, and brought forth his papers. Upon examination I
found it was the ship Flora, of and to Liverpool, from Manilla, with a
general cargo.
While looking over his papers, a ceaseless string of interrogations was
kept up by the Master, to which I returned no answer, merely returning
the papers, and remarking that he had given himself and us also, some
really causeless detention. "Have you any news, captain?" I asked. "Yes,
I have some news; news that some three or four of you would like to be
acquainted with, but news that one of you would rather not know. But I'd
see you Yankees sunk forty fathoms deep before I would tell you it."
"Come, captain, don't be uncharitable; you know what is written in the
Bible.
Pages:
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362