"What cheer, O, what cheer! Tumble up, my daisy!"
The man glared glassily, and muttered, "I speak him Ingleese very
good."
"Never mind your Ingleese; come on, and make your fellows help to pump."
The captain rose, reeled, and fell. He was mortal drunk.
"You been do you dam please," he hiccupped; and Joe retired with a
shrug.
It was clear that the English pilot had run a Spanish ship aground, as
nearly as possible, and only the two anchors kept her from going hard
on. The two Englishmen found that the vessel had five feet of water in
her, and, in their plain, matter-of-fact way, they set to work. Ugly
washes were coming over, but they lashed themselves to the pump and set
to work like the indomitable seadogs that they were. They could not make
her suck, but before they were utterly exhausted they reduced the water
much, and then they cast themselves clear and began to prepare for the
tide. They put the fore topsail on her, and then signalled for their own
vessel. With a last effort they got one anchor, but, when Joe proposed
trying the other, poor Billy groaned, "That's a pill enough for me, Joe;
I shall die if we stand to it any more.
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