ZABRA.

Zabra had not been many days on board, before he became a source of

wonder to the whole crew. A spirit flashed from his dark lustrous eyes,

that kept off every thing approaching the shape of sociality among

the persons by whom he was surrounded. He rarely spoke, except when

attending upon Oriel Porphyry; and then the proud expression of his

looks that made curiosity stand aloof, was changed into a glowing

animation, and the tongue which had seemed to disdain all converse

became eloquent with a resistless endeavour to delight. He had all the

external appearance of a graceful youth of sixteen, with a form tall,

elegant, and buoyant, whose heart had just received the invigorating

warmth of the first dawn of manly sentiments; but when the voice sent

its soft music to the ear, breathing the rich poetry of an ardent

imagination, the splendour of the language, its power and meaning, and

the energy with which it was supported, gave evidence of a mind much

nearer approaching the maturity of a masculine intellect, than the age

that has been mentioned could have possessed. He seemed as if he existed

only for the purpose for which he had been sent--as if he knew that

his occupation was watching over the safety of him to whom he had been

committed; and he appeared to enter into the service with a heart and

soul devoted to the object. His looks searched the inmost thoughts

of those upon whom they fell, as if to discover whether any sinister

intention against his lord and master was there harboured, and before

their piercing sight it was scarcely possible to stand unmoved; and

there was a mystery in his actions, when removed from the apparent

source of his solicitude, that still more made the wonderers marvel. He

sought a place where no one could intrude upon his privacy, and with a

harp, with which on these occasions he never failed to be accompanied,

so filled the air with unknown melodies, and unheard-of songs, that the

superstitious seamen, as they listened, imagined he was in communication

with beings of another world,--there was something so aërial, so soft,

and so sweet in the music he created.

"Scrunch me if I can make it out at all!" exclaimed Climberkin to a

group of sailors in the forecastle. "He ar'n't got a word to throw away

upon a dog; but if he looks at one, one doesn't feel at all inclined to

be 'quisitive. He was wand'rin' about the main deck as it was getting

duskish yesterday--and I, not keeping a good look out ahead, run foul o'

him afore I knowed who it was. As soon as I diskivered the craft, I was

just beginning a bit of a 'pology, when he fixes on me a look as cut

through me like a nor-wester, waves his arm in a most mysterus manner,

and glides away as softly as if he trod upon butter."

"As true as a fish swims, I've got the only prime notion of this here

mystery," said Boggle, with an air of considerable importance.

"No!" cried several voices incredulously.

"Ah! but I have though, or I'm the spawn of a toad-fish!" replied

Boggle. "And I'll tell you how I gripped it. You see I ar'n't a bit

afeard o' any 'dividual as is aboveboard in what he's arter; and I'm not

the chap likely to be flabbergasted in a fair fight;--so seeing as how

you were all in no little mystification about this youngster, I thought

to myself, says I, when he steers his course into your whereabouts,

'spose you show a civil flag at the mast-head, and ax arter his mother

and all the family; he nat'rally sees you knows manners, and 'mediately

returns the compliment. From this to that, and from that to t'other,

is as easy as catching sharks wi' pickled pork, when two civil fellows

lets go their jawing tackle; so you'll tell him your 'miniscences quite

confidential, and he'll be obligated to tell you his'n; and then having

overhauled his log-book pretty smartish, you can return to your mates

with the 'telligence. Well, I was walking along jest afore dinner,

when I seed master Zabra leaning against a mast, wi' folded arms, eyes

looking straight up to the clouds as was fleecing over the sky in all

sorts o' figurations, and his mahogany face seemin' quite fair by the

side o' the rollin' jet black curls as fell on each cheek down to his

shoulder. I seed in a moment he was no common sort o' cretur. If he

ar'n't a Indian prince, thinks I, I've no notion o' things in general.

Well, I was determined to know the rights on't, and was just about

recomembring the bit of a speech I was going to say about his mother and

the rest o' the family, when, as I came right afore him, he looks me

full in the face; and though I seed nothin' but the flash o' his two

eyes afore he flitted away to the other end o' the ship, they seemed so

'stonishingly curious that they held me to the ground as if I was nailed

to the deck, and the words I was going to say stuck in my throat like

lumps o' old Cucumber-Shin's puddin'."

"Kukumshin!" shouted the black cook, a very fat old negro, indignantly

thrusting his woolly poll in the middle of the group. "Dare to call me

Kukumshin! Me, Roly Poly Cook in ship Albatross, and free gennleman o'

colour--me Kukumshin! Pretty kettle o' fish!--Puddin' berry much too

good for sich a fellar. Stick in him troat too! Him nebber hab no time,

acause him bolt him like smoke, a fellar! Call me Kukumshin indeed!"

"I tell ye what it is, my mates," cried Hearty, inattentive to Roly

Poly's indignation. The group were all attention.

"A fellar!" exclaimed the cook, casting one of his blackest looks upon

the offender, and then waddling off to another part of the ship.

"In my time I've been many voyages to India and thereabouts," said the

old man; "and I knows it's the notion o' them people, that arter a

fellow's dead he comes to life again in another sort of a body. Now if

this here rigmarole's true, which every body there says is as sartain

as a stone 'ill sink, seeing that this youngster is more 'cute in

his notions than is usual at his time o' day, and appears a most

'straordinary sort o' a human, it's much more nat'ral to 'spose he's

been metamorphorosed from some of those Old Indian flos'phers who 's up

to ev'ry thing in natur', than that he should be a mere hobbledehoy, as

can't have any more gumption than what 'll serve him to carry a letter

or go on a message. But hush!" exclaimed the speaker as a beautiful

symphony full of passionate sentiment was borne upon the air. A soft

melodious voice soon mingled with the instrument, and these words were

sung with all the expression superior skill could bestow upon them:--

"The wave rolls on from shore to shore,

As from the first those billows roll'd;

All study its mysterious lore,

But none have yet its secrets told!

So in the heart a flood flows on

As free and boundless in its will;

As long, the learnèd there have gone--

Its secrets are unfathom'd still!

"Unfathomed still, fond heart! remain,--

Veil thy rich flood's most precious prize!

Thy pearlèd worth--thy golden gain--

Hide--hide from all too-curious eyes!

For see! th' adventurous diver comes,

Down in thy deeps he makes his stay;

Through ev'ry hidden cave he roams--

Then bears thy treasured stores away.

"But why thy sterling splendours hide?--

Why veil the worth thou dost possess?--

Pour out thy bright exhaustless tide!

Lay bare thy wealth!--and thee 't will bless.

The riches that are hoarded up,

In worthless hands at last must shrink;--

And he who cares to fill the cup,

Should fill for one who longs to drink!"

"There! that _is_ music," observed Climberkin in a whisper; "and it

makes my heart leap like a dolphin just taken out o' his element."

"All hands to take in sail!" shouted a stentorian voice from the

quarter-deck, and in an instant the group were engaged in active duty.

But the song had other listeners than the party just described. Oriel

Porphyry, after escaping from a weary lecture from the learned professor

Fortyfolios, who seemed laudably anxious to fulfil his duties to his

pupil, had been pacing the quarter-deck with long and hasty strides,

when he was roused from the ambitious reveries of his ardent imagination

by the mellow sounds of a harp at no great distance. In him, the voice,

the song, its sentiments, and their expression, recalled to his memory

the delicious beauty of her, from the wondrous lustre of whose gaze he

had drunk of that intoxicating stream which had bound his senses in a

wild and rapturous delirium. The dark eyes, radiant with the light of

the impassioned soul that floated in their depths, again raised on

him their sunny splendour; and the budding mouth, bearing the odorous

spirits of a thousand roses on its lips, once more appeared to teach

those smiling lessons that had been to him the fairest pages in the

book of knowledge. He listened, and his heart was filled with the sweet

influence of a happier time. The dreams of ambition were forgot--the

suggestions of pride were unthought of--fame, glory, power, the pomp of

greatness, the sway of empire, and the adulation of the governed, were

now as things for which he had no sympathy; and he thought only of the

time when the noble, gifted, young, and beautiful Eureka, regardless

of the loftiness of her exalted station, the opinions of her princely

family, or the sentiments of the world, ennobled him with the passionate

ecstacies of her enthusiastic nature, and first filled his youthful

brain with those heroic dreams which made him yearn after the glorious

influence of superiority.

During the continuance of the song he listened with breathless

attention, and the rich harmonies of the music kept him spell-bound

to the spot on which he stood; but as the last chords of the closing

symphony were struck, he stood by the side of the musician.

"I knew not, Zabra, that you were so well skilled in the science of

sweet sounds," said he.

Zabra had appeared so lost in his own meditations, that he had not

noticed master Porphyry's approach. His gaze was fixed; and as he bent

over his harp, allowing the long curls of his dark hair to mingle with

its strings, no attitude, and no expression of countenance, could more

plainly interpret the perfect state of self-abandonment in which he then

existed; but when he heard the voice of him by whom he was addressed, in

an instant his dark handsome features assumed a different expression,

and throwing back the shining tresses that shaded his face, he seemed a

creature all smiles, devotion, and enjoyment.

"Music has been to me the food of my existence," remarked the page: "on

its divine essence I was nurtured; and as the perfume forms a part of

the breeze on which it is borne, harmony has entered into my nature, and

is now my life, my strength, and my felicity."

"Where did you learn the song I have just heard?" inquired the

merchant's son.

"From the impulses of my own creative spirit," replied the other. "From

sympathies awakened into action by the strong power that creates and

controls them. See you the mighty tide that swells up into universal

motion, bearing by its own strength the burthen of resistless armaments

as if they were but reeds, and when it does put forth its power,

assuming such shapes and doing such things as make the marvel of every

age; and know you not that it is the operation of its attraction for

that fair world of light that dwelleth in the starry heaven, whose

glimpses of a glory not to be subdued enter into its innermost depths,

and stir its everlasting waves with passionate emotion?"

"Surely one so young cannot have felt the power of Love?" asked the

elder of the two, in a tone that betrayed the influence of which it

spoke.

"Who shall say when it shall come or when it shall depart?" said Zabra,

as the dusky hue of his cheek gave evidence of the warm blood that

filled his veins. "It is a presence that appeareth at all times when the

soul is fit to receive it. It cometh not at this time, nor at that--it

dwelleth not here, nor there; it filleth eternity of time, and infinity

of space. Look around you, over the vast circumference of boundless

nature--wherever there is life, wherever there is motion--wherever there

is an object that hath beauty in its form and fitness for its purpose,

it hath all its energies swayed by the thrilling impulses of that

almighty passion. The flower that liveth but a few days, trembles in the

warm embraces of the southern breeze; and the planet that smiled upon

the infancy of the world, in the unconquerable maturity of a thousand

ages, still enamoured, drinks in the beauty of the mountain stream. The

heart is ever young, as mine is; and as the mellowing sunbeam calls into

activity the principle of life in the insect's egg, the sunshine in

which I have basked, hath stirred the vital seed implanted within my

breast, and given it restless hopes and fond desires, and properties

and motives to an end, that are the wings with which it flutters in its

shell. The only thing in which I differ from the rest is that my Spring

hath preceded theirs. All have their seasons, but till the sun comes

the winter endures; and in me the frost hath been broken up, and the

current, freed from its icy chains, rushes through its channels in the

soft light of its first bright day, and makes a world of its own, full

of music and flowers."

"But how can you bear to be parted from the object with which your

sympathies are so closely united?" asked master Porphyry.

"We are inseparable," replied Zabra, as he fixed his eyes on the

inquirer, eloquent with animation. "Think you, you can part the melody

from the voice by which it is sung? The two cannot be severed; neither

can the spirit to which mine is linked be other than a part of myself. I

breathe its atmosphere--I enjoy its presence--I share in its delights.

Our bodies may be set asunder by a plank; but you may pile mountains

upon mountains, and worlds upon worlds between us, and yet our souls

will remain one and indivisible."

"How much your voice and gestures remind me of Eureka!" remarked the

merchant's son, regarding with increasing interest the romantic

enthusiasm of his companion.

"For what purpose than this was I sent?" asked the youth, as he

turned away from the gaze as if to examine some of the strings of his

instrument: then continued--"If you loved her with the same intense

devotion with which she regards you, you would not require to be

reminded; but, save in the color of our complexions, there is so perfect

a resemblance both in our appearance and in our natures, that I might

recall her image to any one who has seen her and seems likely to forget

her."

"You wrong me, Zabra!" cried the other vehemently, "if you imagine it

possible that I can forget her. It is she who hath filled these veins

with a quenchless fire that makes my whole frame glow with a desire for

lofty enterprise, to attain a renown, and acquire a greatness worthy of

the love with which I have been honoured. Since that proud day when I

first beheld in her lustrous eyes the light that created a new splendour

over the horizon of my happiness, I have been shaking the chains that

bound me to the world, and, while yearning to emancipate myself from its

oppressive thraldoms, have sought how I could best subdue it to my own

ambitious purposes. I worship the nobility of her nature, and would have

her behold in mine something worthy of its intimate association. I would

not have her descend from the lofty pedestal on which she is placed;

therefore am I eager to win my way to a like elevation--ay, and ascend

higher, if a loftier step there be--and there acknowledge the greatness

I have worshipped, and everlastingly unite it to my own."

"How little you know of her character, if you think she values any

thing except the spirit to which she is attached," observed the page.

"Did she care for the accidental difference of birth that distinguishes

you from her, you would never have known of her affection, because it

could never have existed. They who love the idle vanities of rank, set

their hearts upon a garment, a feather, a shining stone that is made to

adorn the person who possesses it; but it was not such artificial worth

that could attract Eureka. That she would feel proud of any distinction

you might by the force of your own merit acquire, is probable; but

knowing the qualities of your disposition, she holds them at their full

value, which could not be increased in the slightest degree by all the

honours you might gain. It was her observation of a tendency in you to

seek after the unattainable, that made her fearful it would lead you

into danger; and when she pressed me into this service, she bade me

warn you of the different perils it would produce. I warn you now. Take

heed of indulging in these ambitious dreams. You have the elements of

greatness in your character; they ought to content you; and what you

desire are but the shadows of what you have. There is another danger

which is equally imminent; and if you are as truly devoted to Eureka as

she hath ever been to you, you will pause before it reaches you.--Your

feverish pursuit after renown, or power, or whatever delusive meteor it

may be that dazzles your eyes, only tends to make you lose sight of that

one true, steady, and brilliant light that should be a glory in your

pathway."

"Never!" exclaimed his companion with fervour--"never can any ambitious

dream of mine lead me from that splendour out of which it was created.

My aspirations are a natural result of the lofty source from which they

spring. They are but the reflections of her excellence--and the signs

of her presence; and loving her, I could no more exist without desiring

to be great, than I could bask in the sun's rays without acquiring

warmth.--Besides, had I not this stimulus to exertion, by what means can

I hope to make her mine. To the merchant's son the Lord of Philadelphia

would deny his daughter; but with Oriel Porphyry, his equal in dignity

and superior in power, the honoured of all and the feared of many, he

would gladly seek an alliance."

"You think not of what Eureka's ideas may be on this subject?" inquired

Zabra.

"I think of them, but they cannot avail," said the other.

"They will avail!" replied the youth emphatically.

"How?" asked master Porphyry.

"Be assured of this," said his young companion, while again he seemed

more attentive to his harp than to his listener. "If, in a reasonable

time, the obstacles that retard your union still exist, she will point

out a way by which they may be honourably set aside, or acquiesce in any

plan with the same object in view, which you may propose."

"How know you this?" inquired the other hastily.

"I heard her say it," said the page.

"But before I return, her father may compel her to enter into other

arrangements."

"Eureka has a will which is not to be compelled--she will readily do

that which is right--but no power on earth could bend her inclinations

to an unjust purpose."

"And she may be surrounded by dangers--subject to every kind of

suffering, and forced to endure a thousand indignities from which I have

no power to rescue her," continued master Porphyry.

"She _is_ surrounded by dangers," said the youth with emphasis--"dangers

new and terrible to other minds; but of these she will think nothing,

and of what she may be obliged to endure she will be equally regardless,

as long as she is possessed with the conviction, that he for whom alone

she suffers is not unmindful of the sacrifices she has made."

"There is a strength in your words," said the merchant, laying his hand

upon the shoulder of his companion, "which there is no withstanding; and

your looks are even more eloquent than your language. How is it possible

that one apparently so young should have acquired that force of

expression, and depth of meaning, which breathes in every sentence you

express."

"I was taught early, and well," replied the other, as his frame trembled

slightly under the touch of his companion. "And as for my speech--truth

is always the most forcible. My external frame may appear light and

boyish; but size is no safe guide for the judgment. The ostrich never

leaves the earth along which it glides; but the eagle pierces the

unfathomable depths of air with an untiring wing, and floats with eye

undimmed within the scorching rays of the eternal sun."

"Zabra, your nature is superior to the garb you wear," said the elder,

as he kindly took the hand and gazed into the face of his more youthful

associate. "I cannot allow you to be thus. You must put away the page,

and endeavour to be the friend of Oriel Porphyry."

"By whatever title Oriel Porphyry can most love Zabra, that title Zabra

would most desire to be," replied the other.

"Then be it so," said his companion. "From henceforth you shall be my

associate--my friend--my brother. Any thing in the ship that can extend

your enjoyments shall be at your disposal, and you may command the

services of every living creature it contains. We will be together as

often as possible, and the greatest delight you can create, or I can

indulge in, will be for us to discourse of her in whose affection I

exist; that when I hear the magic music of your voice, and meet the deep

intelligence of your gaze, the resemblance may make me imagine that the

blissful times have again returned, when beneath the shadows of the

welcome trees we sat together till the noonday hours ran on unnoticed

to the twilight, and the twilight deepened into evening, and still our

hands were clasped with the same gentle pressure with which they first

met, and still our eyes looked into each other with the same unspeakable

meaning that was first created in their mutual glances."

Perhaps Oriel Porphyry would have said more, but at that moment his

companion withdrew his hand, and with looks full of an empassioned

tenderness, as he struck an accompaniment of harmonious chords, he sang

the following words:--

"Sound, oh Harp! some sweet and cheerful lay,

Soft as the breath of eve o'er mountain springs,

Awhile the spirit of a brighter day

Mingles its voice with thy rejoicing strings.

With thy rejoicing strings, oh Soul of Song!

Bind the fond air with spells rained free and fast;

And as thy thrilling echoes roll along,

We'll raise again THE RAPTURES OF THE PAST!

"Sound, oh Harp! such harmony as dies

Within the warm and rosy atmosphere,

When gentle whispers, and delicious sighs,

Send a delighting welcome to the ear.

A welcome to the ear, oh Voice Divine!

Which long as life, and kind as hope, shall last;

That with the wealth of an exhaustless mine

Stores in our hearts THE TREASURES OF THE PAST!

"Sound, oh Harp! thy music once again,

For now while I intrusive cares destroy,

An impulse stirs within the heart and brain,

Strong with the power of everlasting joy.

Of everlasting joy, Prophetic Sound!

(A bliss that cannot in the grave be cast;)

For as thy trembling murmurs swell around,

Still we embrace THE BLESSINGS OF THE PAST."

When the song concluded their hearts seemed filled with a mutual

sympathy which neither could express; and Master Porphyry throwing his

arm round the young musician, and bringing Zabra's arm round his own

waist, drew him to another part of the vessel without either exchanging

a word. In this attitude, the youthful pair would have formed an

admirable study for a painter. The tall and manly form of the merchant's

son, his clear complexion and noble countenance creating a perfect

contrast to the symmetrical, yet delicate, figure of his companion, and

the soft voluptuous character of his more dark but not less beautiful

features.

While these proceedings were going on, a scene of a very different

description was being acted in a low, dark, narrow cabin in a secluded

part of the ship. By the light of a small lamp that swung from the

roof, the diminutive form of Log the captain's clerk, with his little

conceited physiognomy, might be observed perched upon a high stool

engaged in writing, while the more burly figure, but not more

prepossessing countenance, of Scrumpydike, lay extended on some packages

near his feet.

"Scrunch me, if this ar'n't the most miserable sort o' life, I ever

knowed," remarked the latter, as he rested his chin upon his hands and

supported himself upon his elbows.

"Sad!" responded Log, who thinking that to speak much would lessen his

consequence, seldom allowed any thing beyond a monosyllable to escape

him, to which by repetitions and some slight additions he attempted to

give as much importance as if they contained volumes of meaning. "Sad,

sad, very sad, very sad upon my word, Mister Scrumpydike."

"There's nothin' doin'," continued the other. "I feel as queer as a dog

wi' his tail cut off, cause there's no 'portunity to do nothin'."

"Nothing, nothing, decidedly, actually, positively nothing, Mister

Scrumpydike," replied the little man.

"It's a tarnation hard case that a fellow's obligated to be honest

against his will," remarked the sailor despondingly.

"Hard, hard, very hard, very hard indeed, uncommonly hard, Mister

Scrumpydike," said the other, appearing to sympathise exceedingly in so

extraordinary a cause of complaint.

"But what's most cruel in this here unnat'ral state o' things is, that

there's sich lots o' beautiful prigging for any chap as is a mind to

make his-self handy," added his companion in the same pathetic tone.

"Cruel, cruel, most cruel, most unjustly, most unnaturally, most

deplorably cruel, Mister Scrumpydike," responded Log.

"Well, I only knows I shan't be able to stand this here molloncolly sort

o' fun much longer. May I be bolted by a shark if I ar'n't a getting

into the most 'bominable reg'lar habits as can be. You wouldn't s'pose

it possible, but I ar'n't 'propriated nothin' o' nobodies since I've

been aboard this here craft. I ar'n't the same sort o' cretur I was

afore. I ar'n't, indeed. I resists temptation, and commits lots o' other

'straordinary impossibilities. I does without divarsion:--I ar'n't

killed a fellow cretur for ever so long. And worser nor all, some o'

the bugaboos here act'ly thinks I ar'n't no greater a villain than

themselves, ar'n't it horrid?"

"Terrible, terrible, horribly terrible, upon my word, very horribly

terrible, Mister Scrumpydike."

Here the dialogue was interrupted by a knocking at the door which made

Scrumpydike jump upon his legs, and Log twist himself round upon his

stool, each looking, in a considerable degree, alarmed and anxious.

Presently the door opened cautiously, and Captain Compass entered the

cabin. His sallow complexion, high cheek bones, prominent nose, thick

lips, and restless grey eyes were surrounded by a thick mass of coarse

black hair, that spread from each side of his narrow forehead, down his

cheeks and under his chin, in a formidable pair of whiskers. His figure

was spare of flesh, but in the gauntness of body, length of arm, and

sinewy leg, there was evidently more than ordinary strength. His

appearance was not likely to excite for him much regard, but there was

a careless freedom in his manner, a frank boldness in his conversation,

and a pungent satire in his wit, that had made him an agreeable

companion to the merchant's son.

"All right, Scrumpy?" inquired Compass in a whisper, after closing the

door carefully after him.

"All right, cap'ain," replied Scrumpydike.

"Right, right, very right, perfectly right, right as a trivet, Captain

Compass," added Log.

"Scrunch me, if we shan't all be served with sauce we don't like, unless

we keep a smart look out ahead," observed the captain as he flung

himself upon a bale of goods.

"Why, what's in the wind now, cap'ain?" inquired Scrumpydike, with some

earnestness, while little Log remained silent with alarm.

"May I be peeled to shreds in a hurricane, if that dark looking son of a

savage, who came on board the day we sailed, doesn't suspect the game we

are playing," continued the captain.

"No!" exclaimed the other, as an expression of anxiety became visible in

his hard rough features; and the captain's clerk trembled on his stool

as if he was shaken by an ague.

"I was palavering young Porphyry as smooth as a rat's tail, after he had

been pretty well blown up with the long-winded sentences of that tedious

old porpoise Fortyfolios, and was going it at a smacking rate about the

pleasure of liberty and the enjoyments of a life of enterprise, the sort

of discourse, I have found out, he'll suck in as a fish drinks water,

when happening to turn my daylights a little a starboard, I beheld

that black thief Zabra watching me like a snake, and when I met the

full stare of his great goggling eyes they seemed to have the power of

piercing through and through right into the hold where all my secrets

are ballasted, so I, having a sudden fear that he was up to the course

I was steering, lost the helm of my discourse, and anchored in shallow

water, with a muddy bottom, in no time."

"Pooh!" responded Scrumpydike: "is that all? Leave him to me, and I'll

thank ye for the job."

"No, that mustn't be: we must avoid every thing likely to create the

least suspicion," replied the captain.

"I'll take care o' that," said the other: "I'll watch my 'portunity when

he's a hanging over the side o' the ship, as he does o' nights when

there ar'n't a human near enough to catch a glimpse o' his 'bominable

carcass, and then with my 'safe and sure' here," continued the fellow

as he drew a long knife a little way from its concealment in his vest,

"I'll make a sweep into his bread-room, and afore he can ax what it's

for, I'll heave him into a berth where he'll lie snug as a wet blanket

can make him."

"It wo'n't do, I tell you," remarked his associate.

"Nobody needn't know nothin' about it," added Scrumpydike.

"There is too much risk and not sufficient advantage to be gained by

it," said the captain. "Ah!" he continued, after a pause--"if I only

had some of the old hands now, scrunch me, if I wouldn't put matters to

rights, after a fashion the fellows here don't dream of."

"Wouldn't we? Breakers ahead! wouldn't we?" cried the other with

exultation. "But they've all cut their cables and gone adrift. There's

nothin' but misfortunes in this here world. It's a hard case for a

fellow who's sociably inclined to see his mates, as fine a set o'

villains as ever escaped hanging, partin' company without cuttin' each

other's throats or doin' any thing in a friendly way." A melancholy

pause succeeded this sentence.--"It was an ugly business that at Cape

Danger, warn't it, Mister Log?" at last asked the scoundrel of the

little man upon the stool.

"Ugly, ugly, very ugly, I may say uncommonly, deplorably, ferociously

ugly, Mister Scrumpydike," replied the captain's clerk.

"Well, it's no use lamenting the catastrophe now," observed the captain.

"All we've got to do is to get a new ship and a fresh set of hands. The

ship we've as good as got, but she can be of no use without a crew of

the right sort. To get such a set of fellows together will take some

time. We must either pick them up where we can, or try and make the

present crew adopt our views. This will be rather a ticklish business,

and requires very careful management, for the slightest knowledge of

our intentions among those not inclined to join us will wreck the whole

concern. Now, Scrumpy, you've got jawing tackle that will stand in any

weather."

"Ay, ay, cap'ain," cried the fellow with a grin: "may I be washed to

rags in a waterspout if I couldn't bamboozle the devil's grandmother."

"Well, you must sound these fellows, but do it cautiously--and try if

the inducement of plenty of plunder and a free life will be likely to

lead them to assist us in our bold undertaking. As for the boy Zabra,

although there appears something very mysterious about him, and he looks

as sharp as a sword-fish, I don't think it possible he can find me out.

Scorch my body to a cinder! but it would be a hard case if, after having

baffled so many big vessels, I should be sunk by such a bit of a craft

as that. However, I mus'n't stay here any longer or my absence may

create inquiry," observed the speaker as he proceeded to the door; then

looking at his associates said, "Remember what you have heard, and

steer your course accordingly," and with the same caution with which he

entered left the cabin.

"Well, ar'n't this enough to make a fellow ready to jump down his own

throat wi' vexation?" remarked Scrumpydike to his companion. "Here, I

was jest 'gratulating myself that spiflicating that young blackamoor

would be a tolerable bit o' a pastime to cheer up the dulness o' this

here molloncholy life, when he turns round upon me and says it ar'n't

to be at no price! I'd rather live in a whale's belly up to my nose in

blubber than endure this uncomfortable state o' feeling. Scrunch me if

I wouldn't. Don't you think now, Master Log, it's as bad a state o'

existence as is possible for a human to know on?"

"Bad, bad, shocking bad, particularly shocking bad, upon my word

very particularly shocking bad, Mister Scrumpydike," replied the

commiserating captain's clerk; and immediately afterwards the

dissatisfied villain walked away to join his unsuspicious messmates.