"Or else he must have seen a ghost," replied Smallbones.
"I've heard of ghosts ashore, and sometimes on board of a ship, but I
never heard of a ghost in a jolly-boat," said Coble, spitting under
the gun.
"'Specially when there were hardly room for the corporal," added Spurey.
"Yes," observed Short.
"Well, we shall know something about it to-night, for the corporal and I
am to have a palaver."
"Mind he don't circumwent you, Jimmy," said Spurey.
"It's my opinion," said Smallbones, "that he must be in real arnest,
otherwise he would not ha' come for to go for to give me a glass of
grog--there's no gammon in that;--and such a real stiff 'un too,"
continued Smallbones, who licked his lips at the bare remembrance of the
unusual luxury.
"True," said Short.
"It beats my comprehension altogether out of nothing," observed Spurey.
"There's something very queer in the wind. I wonder where the corporal
has been all this while."
"Wait till this evening," observed Jemmy Ducks; and, as this was very
excellent advice, it was taken, and the parties separated.
In the despatches it had been requested, as important negotiations were
going on, that the cutter might return immediately, as there were other
communications to make to the States General on the part of the King of
England; and a messenger now informed Vanslyperken that he might sail as
soon as he pleased, as there was no reply to the despatches he had
conveyed.
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