“So to sea we clears out, And the ship’s head, no doubt, Sou’-west and by sou’ it was laid, oh! For the isles of the sun, Where there’s fiddlers and fun, And no end of the real Trinidado. “Says our skipper, says he, ‘Be she close-hauled or free, She’d behave herself in a tornado!’ So he handles the ship With a canful of flip, And a pipe of the real Trinidado. “She’s a weatherly craft, Werry wet, fore-and-aft, And she rolls like a liquorish jade, oh! But she steers werry kind, On a course to her mind, When she’s bound for the isle Trinidado. “Soon a sail we espies, Says the skipper—‘My eyes! That’s the stuff for us lads of the trade, oh! Bales of silk in his hold, Casks of rum—maybe gold— Not forgetting the real Trinidado!’ “Then it’s ‘Stand by! My sons! Steady! Run out your guns— We’ve the Don’s weather-gage. Who’s afraid, oh!’ So we takes him aback, He is ours in a crack, And we scuttles him off Trinidado! “Now, here’s to the crew! And the skipper! and Sue! And here’s ‘Luck to the boys of the blade, oh! May they ne’er want a glass, A fair wind, a fair lass! Nor a pipe of the real Trinidado!’” The applause elicited by this effort was loud and long. Ere it subsided, George looked more than once anxiously to windward. Then he went to his cabin and consulted the barometer, after which he reappeared on deck and whispered in Eugène’s ear— “I am going to caulk it for an hour or two. Hold on, unless there’s any change in the weather, and be sure you come below and rouse me out at eight bells.” CHAPTER XXVIII DIRTY WEATHER At eight bells the Captain came on deck again, glancing once more somewhat anxiously astern. Not a cloud was to be seen in the moonlit sky, and the breeze that had blown so steadily, though so softly, for weeks, was sinking gradually, dying out, as it were, in a succession of gentle, peaceful sighs. Eugène, with the weather-wisdom of a man who had been but a few months at sea, rather inclined to think they might be becalmed. The crew did not trouble themselves about the matter. Every rag the brigantine could show was already set, and if a sail flapped idly against the mast, it soon drew again as before, to propel them smoothly on their course.