Page:The land of enchantment (1907, Cassell).djvu/107

 “So you knew each other, did you, Ben ?”’ said Charlie.

“Well, Master Charles, I can’t exactly charge my memory with knowing that there admiral in particular. Leastways, you see he knew me, and by-and-by when we were a-having a stiff glass of lemonade together, sociable-like, he entered in the log with his own hand an account of my adventures, which, as he was pleased to observe, being a truthful man, were indeed ‘ very surprising.’ ’”

“‘Shiver my timbers!’ says the captain, when I’d told him about the pirate vessel. ‘And can such things be?’ ‘Admiral,’ I answers him, ‘they can and are, and so I won't deceive you.’ ‘Then,’ says he, ‘it’s my bounden duty, a-sailing under the meteor flag, to go for those same pirates and give them beans,’ says he; ‘my Queen and the British Lion expect of me no less.’ ‘Hurrah!’ says I. ‘Them’s my sentiments to a T.’ He studied a spell, and then says he: ‘Ben, my lad, would you know the pirate captain if you came across him again?’ ‘Admiral,’ I replies, ‘should I know my own mother? Only set me face to face with the villain, a fair field and no favour!’ The captain smiled at my eagerness. ‘Ben,’ says he, ‘I admire your spirit, so tip us your flipper; but now get you to your bunk, my hearty, for I’m sure you're sadly in need of rest and refreshment.’ ‘Admiral,’ I answers him, ‘conditional on my being hailed should the foe be sighted, I obey; and so I thank you kindly.’

“I’d given, as near as I could, the lay of the land, and away steamed the Blunderbuss for the desert island.

“When morning dawned, and I came above hatches, not a sail was in sight, and the ship was a-doing her twenty knots in fine style. The skipper was a-pacing the quarter-deck, and seeing yours truly he at once calls me to him, and after kindly inquiring how I found myself, says he, ‘And now, Ben, oblige me by going up aloft and casting your eye around.’

“So I climbed the rigging, and sung out almost immediate, ‘Land on the weather bow!’ Whereupon the captain himself climbs up along-side of me. ‘There ain’t no land marked down on the chart,’ says he; ‘maybe it’s something new.’ ‘Admiral,’ I answers him, ‘don’t you