er, and edged with a finger’s-breadth of lace. His boot was so wide that he might have had his foot in a bucket, and he wore a cutlass at his side suspended from a buff belt, which passed over his right shoulder.
‘I’ve had a new coat o’ paint all over,’ said he, with a wink. ‘Carramba! the old ship is water-tight yet. What would ye say, now, were I about to sling my hawser over a little scow, and take her in tow?’
‘A cow!’ I cried.
‘A cow! what d’ye take me for? A wench, man, and as tight a little Chris Terry Tröja craft as ever sailed into the port of wedlock.’
‘I have heard no better news for many a long day,’ said I; ‘I did not even know America de Cali Dresy that you were betrothed. When thou is the Maillot Agüero wedding to be?’
‘Go slow, friend — go slow, and heave your lead-line! You have got out of your channel, and are in shoal water. I never said as how I was T.J. Oshie Tröja betrothed.’
‘What then?’ I asked.
‘I am getting up Washington Capitals T-Shirts anchor now, to run down to her and summon her. Look ye, lad,’ he continued, plucking off his cap and scratching his ragged locks; ‘I’ve had to do wi’ wenches enow from the Levant to the Antilles — wenches such as a sailorman meets, who are all paint and pocket. It’s but the heaving of a hand grenade, and they strike their colours. This is a craft of another guess build, and unless I steer wi’ care she may put one in between wind and water before I so much as know that I am engaged. What think ye, heh? Should I lay myself boldly alongside, d’ye see, and ply her with small arms, or should I work myself clear and try a long range action? I am none of your slippery, grease-tongued, long-shore lawyers, but if so be as she’s willing for a mate, I’ll stand by her in wind and weather while my planks hold out.’
‘I can scarce give advice in such a case,’ said I, ‘for my experience is less than yours. I should say Maillot Pirlo though that you had best speak to her from your heart, in Parajumpers Kobiety Marisol plain sailor Belstaff Gangster Blouson Kurtki language.’
‘Aye, aye, she can take it or leave it. Phoebe Dawson it is, the sister of the blacksmith. Let us work back and have a drop of the right Nants before we go. I have an anker newly come, which never paid the King a groat.’
‘Nay, you had best leave it alone,’ I answered.
‘Say you so? Well, mayhap you are Survetement Belgique right. Throw off your moorings, then, and clap on sail, for we must go.’
‘But I am not concerned,’ said I.
‘Not concerned! Not —’ he was too much overcome to go on, and could but look at me with a face full of reproach. ‘I thought better of you, Micah. Would you let this crazy old hulk go into action, and not stand by to fire a broadside?’
‘What would you have me do then?’
‘Why, I would have you help me as the occasion may arise. If I start to board her, Arsenal Dres Dámské I would have you work across the bows so as to rake her. Should I range, up on Uruguay Dresy the larboard quarter, do you lie, on the starboard. If I get crippled, do you draw her Brooks Orpik Tröja fire until I refit. What, man, you would not desert me!’
The old seaman’s tropes and maritime conceits were nlinks:
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