athwart his hawse in the argument, you see we should have given him a
regular jam in the discourse, and then the fellow would have been shamed
in the eyes of all the by-standers. Who hails? what cook is sticking his
neighbour's pig now?"

"Lor'! Misser Fid," cried the black, "here masser Harry, wid a head out of
port-hole, up dereaway in a light-house, singing-out like a marine in a
boat wid a plug out!"

"Ay, ay, let him alone for hailing a top-gallant yard, or a
flying-jib-boom! The lad has a voice like a French horn, when he has a
mind to tune it! And what the devil is he manning the guns of that
weather-beaten wreck for? At all events, if he has to fight his craft
alone, there is no one to blame but himself, since he has gone to quarters
without beat of drum, or without, in any other manner, seeing fit to
muster his people."

As Dick and the negro had both been making the best of their way towards
the ruin, from the moment they discovered the situation of their friend,
by this time they were within speaking distance of the spot itself.
Wilder, in those brief, pithy tones that distinguish the manner in which a
sea officer issues his orders, directed them to raise the ladder. When he
was liberated, he demanded, with a sufficiently significant air, if they
had observed the direction in which the stranger in green had made his
retreat?

"Do you mean the chap in boots, who was for shoving his oar into another
man's rullock, a bit ago, on the small matter of wharf, hereaway, in a
range, over yonder house, bringing the north-east chimney to hear in a
line, with the mizen-top-gallant-mast-head of that ship they are warping