The sailors rumbled with laughter at the fellow, and some of the Englishmen eyed me askant to guess my mind. I was willing, however, that Bol should run on. Greaves was near, and able to hear and judge for himself. When the last case was out of the boat I walked aft. Greaves said, “Send your boat’s crew to dinner, and let others take their place for the next boat.” “With your leave, sir, I’ll keep the men I have just returned with. They know the ropes and have nothing to learn.” “Be it so. Send the crew to dinner, but let them bear a hand; and you can make a meal off this tray here.” There was food in plenty, and wine. Having told the boat’s crew to go to their dinner, I sat down with Greaves, and ate and drank. The weather continued extraordinarily beautiful, but the wind was failing, long glassy lines of calm were already snaking along the surface of the sea, and it was fiercely hot. The horizon swam in a film; you could have seen ten miles in the morning, and not five miles now from the deck. No sights had been taken; no sights were needed when there was an island, whose situation had been accurately observed, close alongside. “We shall have the dollars aboard by four?” said Greaves. “Easily, sir.” “Do you believe in the dollars now, Fielding?” said he, with a smile. I answered, “Yes,” coloring, and asked him how he felt. “Easier,” said he; “there is no pain when I sit. A severe bruise--no more.” “Yan Bol is a bit forward and outspoken for a foremast hand, don’t you think, captain?” “He is a Dutchman, and all Dutchmen are cheeky. The word _cheek_ originates with the Dutch. Look at their sterns and look at their faces, if you want the etymology of the word _cheek_.” “I hope he’ll remain cheeky only. For my part, I don’t feel sure of the man.” “Too late--too late,” said Greaves irritably and impatiently. “I do not like that he should ask me the value of the treasure that is to come aboard, and I do not like that he should say that as the size of a flea is to the size of the dog that scratches it, is the proportion of the forecastle share to the whole of the money.” “If he gives me trouble,” said Greaves, “I will shoot him. I will show you the rising moon through a slug-hole in the devil’s skull. But do not accept Yan Bol too literally. Dutchmen will say without significance that which, in the mouth of an Englishman, might sound brutally malevolent and sinister.” “That may be, sir. I don’t know the Dutch.” “I have made up my mind not to meddle with the cargo. Do not trouble to examine it. The money will be risk enough. Shrewd as old Tulp believes himself to be, and really is, the anxiety of running a quantity of tin won’t be worth the purchase. If the cocoa is sweet, bring some of it off for the ship’s use, and if you can meet with the four casks of tortoise shell, we’ll find room for the stuff. Four casks are easy of transhipment, but the rest we’ll let be.”