Fawkes--him they burn every 5th of November--used to live there; and
the story went that it was haunted, and that there was one room, the
door of which always stood ajar, and nobody could either open or shut
it. Well, mates, Old Captain Goss wasn't the sort of man to care much
about Guy Fawkeses or goblins; so he hires a room in this old
house--precious cheap he got it!--and when he was ashore, you could
see a light in it all night; and if you went near, you might listen to
Old Goss singing roaring songs about the brisk boys of the Spanish
main, and yelling and huzzaing to himself, and drinking what he called
his five-water grog. Five-water grog, mates--that was one of his
jokes. It was rum made hot on the fire; and he could drink it scalding
and never wink: and he would drink it till he got reg'lar wild. He was
never right-down drunk, but just wild, like a savage beast! And then
he would jump up, and make-believe he was fighting, and holler out to
give it to the Spanish dogs, and that there were lots of doubloons
below. I've gone myself with other youngsters, to listen at the door;
and once when he was in the fit, yelling and singing, and laughing and
swearing, all at once, I'm jiggered if he didn't out with a brace of
old brass-mounted ship's pistols, and fire them right and left in the
air, so that we cut and run a deal faster than we came. Of course the
report soon got about that Captain Goss was an old pirate, or at the
best an old bucaneer; and the Barking folks used to tell how many
crews he had made walk the plank, and how there was blood-marks on his
hands, which he used to try to cover with tar. But no one dared to say
a word of this to him; and as he was a prime sailor, and even kind
after his fashion, when he had taken first a reg'lar quantity of his
five-water grog, he never wanted hands. At sea, he was often wild
enough with liquor; but he no sooner put his hand on the tiller, than
he seemed all right: and the _Lively Nan_ walked through it like
smoke. I'm jiggered, mates, if that old fellow couldn't sail a ship