"I must find out the ringleaders, corporal; do you think that you could
contrive to overhear what they say after the song is over? they will be
consulting together, and we might find out something."
"Mynheer, I'm not very small for to creep in and listen," replied the
corporal, casting his eyes down upon his huge carcass.
"Are they all forward?" inquired the lieutenant.
"Yes, mynheer--not one soul baft."
"There is the small boat astern; do you think you could get softly into
it, haul it up to the bows, and lie there quite still? You would then
hear what they said, without their thinking of it, now that it is dark."
"I will try, mynheer," replied the corporal, who quitted the cabin.
But there were others who condescended to listen as well as the
corporal, and in this instance, every word which had passed, had been
overheard by Smallbones, who had been for some hours out of his hammock.
When the corporal's hand touched the lock of the door, Smallbones made
a hasty retreat.
Corporal Van Spitter went on the quarter-deck, which he found vacant; he
hauled up the boat to the counter, and by degrees lowered into it his
unwieldy carcass, which almost swamped the little conveyance.
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