"The lad's nimble enough with his fives, I will say, for all his sea-lawyerin'." "We must 'ave him, Bill; if I take him myself we must 'ave him!" cried Ben Jope, dancing with admiration.

'"Tis no more than a mercy, neither, after the trouble he's been and laid up for hisself." Into what precise degree of mental confusion Mr.Jope had worked himself the Major could never afterwards determine; though he soon had every opportunity to think it out at leisure.
For the moment, as a boatswain's whistle shrilled close behind his ear, he was merely bewildered.

He did not even know that the mouth sounding it was Mr.Jope's.

It _ought_ to have sounded on board H.M.S.

_Poseidon_.
As the crowd to right and left of him surged to its feet, he saw at intervals along the gallery, sailor after sailor leap up with drawn cutlass.