The Wreck of the Nancy Bell | Page 2

for a better ship under me in fair wind or foul than the Nancy Bell. Bless her old timbers, she's staunch and sound from truck to keelson, and the smartest clipper that ever sailed out of the London Docks--when she has anything like decent weather!"
"That she is, sorr, plaze the pigs!" chorused the Irishman to this paean of praise, which might have run on to an interminable length if it had not been just then interrupted by the mate's suddenly raising his gilt- banded cap in nautical salute to a new-comer, who now appeared on the scene.
Captain Dinks, at once "cutting short" any further rhapsodical encomiums he may have contemplated anent the merits of the Nancy Bell, turned round.
"Ah, good morning, Mr Meldrum," said he in cordial tones, raising his cap politely like his chief officer. "You are early on deck: an old sailor, I presume!"
"Good morning, Captain Dinks," smilingly replied the gentleman addressed, one of the few saloon passengers who patronised the cuddy of the New Zealand clipper on her present voyage. He had only just that moment come up from below, tempted to turn out by the genial brightness of the lovely June morning; and, as he emerged from the companion hatchway, he bent his steps along the poop towards the binnacle, by which the captain and his aide-de-camp were standing. "Yes," he continued, in answer to the former's question, "I have had a voyage or two in my time, and one is accustomed to keep early hours at sea."
"Begorrah, ye're right, sorr!" ejaculated the Irish mate, with an empressment that showed his earnestness. "An' a dale too airly for some ov us sometimes. Sure, an' a sailor's loife is a dog's loife entirely!"
"Shut up, you old humbug!" said the captain with a laugh, turning to the passenger; "Why, to hear him you would think McCarthy to be one of those lazy lubbers who are never content unless they are caulking below, snoozing their wits away whilst the sun is scorching their eyes out; whereas, he's the most active and energetic seaman I ever met with in all my experience at sea, man and boy, for the last thirty years. Look you, Mr Meldrum, he never waits to be roused out by any chance when it's his watch on deck; while, should the weather be at all nasty, you really can't get him to go below and turn in--it is `spell ho' with him with a vengeance, night and day alike!"
"Don't you belave his blarney, sorr," put in the mate eagerly, bursting into a roar of merriment, although blushing purple with delight the while at the skipper's compliment. "Why, sorr, whin I go to slape sometimes, the divil himself couldn't wake me!"
"Ah!" rejoined Captain Dinks, "that may be when you're ashore, Tim, but I know what you are when you're aboard ship and duty calls! I don't forget, old man, how, under Providence," and this the captain added reverently, taking off his cap and looking up to heaven as he spoke, "you saved the Nancy Bell on our last voyage home--no, Tim, I don't forget!"
"Aye, aye, Cap'en Dinks," replied the other, not to be beaten, "true for you, sorr; but, where was yoursilf the whilst, I'd like to know, and what could I have done without your hilp sure, wid all your blatheration?"
"Nonsense, Tim," returned the captain, giving the mate a slap on the back which must have taken his breath away for the moment, as it made him reel again, and then holding out his hand, which the other grasped with a vice-like grip, in a paw that resembled more in size and shape a leg of mutton than anything else--"Tip us your fist, my hearty, and let us say no more about it!"
It would have done anyone's heart good to see the way in which these two brave men--sailors both every inch of them--then looked each other straight in the eyes, a smile of satisfaction illumining their faces, as if each had reason to be proud of the other, their hands locked in a friendly clasp that was true to the death!
As for Mr Meldrum, the passenger, who was a delighted observer of the good feeling existing between the captain and second in command of the vessel in which, like Caesar, he had "embarked himself and all his fortunes," and was now journeying across the surface of the deep--a good feeling that was fairly indicative of everything going well on the voyage--he was so carried away by the spirit of the moment that he felt inclined to ask that the general hand-shaking might be "passed round for the good of the crowd." What is more, he immediately put his "happy thought" into execution; whereupon, much fist-squeezing ensued between the trio, the steersman looking on with a