Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/188



of the most singular description are often prefaced by incidents of the most commonplace character. Who so inexperienced in the vicissitudes of life as not to know this!

Early in the morning that succeeded their second night on the raft, Robin Wright awoke with a very commonplace, indeed a vulgar, snore; we might almost call it a snort. Such as it was, however, it proved to be a most important link in the chain of events which it is our province to narrate.

To explain: It must be understood that John Shanks, or Stumps, among other eccentricities, practised sprawling in his sleep, spreading himself abroad in inconceivable attitudes, shooting out an arm here, or a leg there, to the alarm or indignation of bedfellows, insomuch that, when known, bed-fellows refused to remain with him.

Aware of Stumps's propensity, Slagg had so arranged that his friend should lie at the stern of