wouldn t hurt me. I ll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, Jim.
He was growing more and more excited, and this alarmed me for my father,
who was very low that day and needed quiet; besides, I was reassured by
the doctor s words, now quoted to me, and rather offended by the offer
of a bribe.
I want none of your money, said I, but what you owe my father. I ll
get you one glass, and no more.
When I brought it to him, he seized it greedily and drank it out.
Aye, aye, said he, that s some better, sure enough. And now, matey,
did that doctor say how long I was to lie here in this old berth?
A week at least, said I.
Thunder! he cried. A week! I can t do that; they d have the black
spot on me by then. The lubbers is going about to get the wind of me
this blessed moment; lubbers as couldn t keep what they got, and want to
nail what is another s. Is that seamanly behaviour, now, I want to know?
But I m a saving soul. I never wasted good money of mine, nor lost it
neither; and I ll trick em again. I m not afraid on em. I ll shake out
another reef, matey, and daddle em again.
As he was thus speaking, he had risen from bed with great difficulty,
holding to my shoulder with a grip that almost made me cry out, and
moving his legs like so much dead weight. His words, spirited as they
were in meaning, contrasted sadly with the weakness of the voice in
which they were uttered. He paused when he had got into a sitting
position on the edge.
That doctor s done me, he murmured. My ears is singing. Lay me back.
Before I could do much to help him he had fallen back again to his
former place, where he lay for a while silent.
Jim, he said at length, you saw that seafaring man today?
Black Dog? I asked.
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