I laughed at all this, though I bade him heartily welcome, and
then I nick-named him commodore, adding that he should sail with me in
that capacity, doing just as much, and just as little duty as he
pleased. As for money, there was a bag of dollars in the cabin, and he
had only to put his hand in, and take what he wanted. The key of the
locker was in my pocket, and could be had for asking. Nobody was more
delighted with this arrangement than Neb, who had even taken a fancy
to Marble, from the moment when the latter led him up from the
steerage of the John, by the ear.
"I say, Miles, what sort of bloody animals are them passengers of
your's?" Marble next demanded, looking over the rim of the top, down
at the trio on deck, with a good deal of curiosity expressed in his
countenance. "This is the first time I ever knew a ship-master driven
aloft by his passengers, in order to talk secrets!"
"That is because you never sailed with the Brigham family, my
friend. They'll pump you till you suck, in the first twenty-four
hours, rely on it. They'll get every fact about your birth, the island
where you first saw me, what you have been about, and what you mean to
do; in a word, the past, present, and future."
"Leave me to overlay their cur'osity," answered the ex-mate, or new
commodore--"I got my hand in, by boarding six weeks with a Connecticut
old maid, once, and I'll defy the keenest questioner of them all.
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