"I'll likely be hammerin' some of you again shortly," said Simpson. And as he was cock of the walk in the foc'sle, whatever he was in the ship, the others dried up. Nothing of great interest happened till they were well east of the Horn and hauled up for the northward run. And then Blaker took to religion (or what he called religion) and rum in equally undiluted doses. "I'm a miserable sinner, I am," he said to the admiral, "but all the same, I'll do my duty to the crowd." He called them aft and preached to them for two hours. And when one man yawned, he laid him out with a well-directed belaying pin. The next day, when it breezed up heavily and they were shortening sail, he called all hands down from aloft on the ground that their souls were of more importance than the work in hand. "Come down on deck, you miserable sinners," said Blaker through a speaking trumpet. His voice rose triumphantly above the roar of the gale. "Come down on deck and listen to me. For though I'm a miserable sinner too, there's some hopes for me, and for you there's none unless you mend your ways, in accordance with what I'm telling you." Even with the speaking trumpet he could hardly make himself heard over the roar of the increasing gale and the thunderous slatting of the topsails in the spilling-lines. "Don't you think, sir, that they'd better make the topsails fast before you speak to them?" said the admiral. "No, I don't," replied Blaker--"not much I don't, not by a jugful. For if one of 'em went overboard, I'd be responsible before the throne. And don't you forget it." "Damme, he's mad," said Sir Richard--"mad as a march hare. She'll be shaking the sticks out of her soon." He leant over the break of the poop, and called up Wiggins. "Mr. Wiggins, one word with you." Wiggins came up, as Blaker roared his text through the trumpet. "Will you stand by me, Mr. Wiggins, if I knock him down and take command?" "I will; but mind his gun," said Wiggins. "When he's very bad, he'll shoot." It was not any fear of Blaker's six-shooter that made the admiral hesitate. To take the command, even from a madman, at sea is a ticklish task and may land a man in gaol, for all his being a Shanghaied admiral. "I tell you, Mr. Wiggins, that Simpson is a good man. I'll bring him aft again." And Wiggins made no objection when Simpson was called up by the admiral. "Mr. Simpson," said the mate, "this is getting past a joke. Have you any objection to taking on your old job if I secure this preaching madman and take command?" Simpson was "full up" of the foc'sle, and as he had a very wholesome admiration for the admiral, he was by no means loth to return to his old quarters. "I'm with you, sir. In another quarter of an hour we shall have the sticks out of her."