_Jack._ “You see, Bill and I started up the river to freshen our joints, which had grown stiff and creaky with salt junk and hard tack. Well, after we had loosened our barnacles with the treacle of a Spanish skipper we took French leave and laid low until you hove in sight. Now you see after we entered with you it took us some time to get the run of the fair weather you made for all hands. Expecting to be taken aback with a sharp squall we kept our eyes well to the wind’ard, for you see on this river with cannibals on the lookout and no vessels there was no chance of skulking on shore for a down-river craft. To be sure, we soon found that we were out and wide in our calculations, so when brought to our bearings we began to take kindly to the lay of our watches in scrubbing and wooding, as there was no hand-spike snubbing or squeak of hard words. Then comes this gold lay, and when you says, ‘Boys, here’s your chance, pitch in, every man for himself without envy,’ we were taken aback with a fair wind. When we came on board to empty our hats we began to take our bearings, and says Bill to me, after an observation, ‘We’ve shipped and signed the papers, and this gold is way freight, so you see it’s not right to tap the cargo on full rations.’ “There was the p’int clear, and we said ‘Never a bit!’ So you see after the flurry was over we put the question to the others and they took the bearings at once; so you see that we’ve concluded that we’re only ‘titled to prize money at most, just as you valer the danger we run with the savages.”