“I should as soon think of setting a price on the King’s crown!” interrupted the straight-going seaman “I overheard the lads, d’ye see, sir, just plotting to throw the three of us overboard, and so we thought it time to say something in our own favour and, words not always being at hand, the black saw fit to fill up the time with something that might answer the turn quite as well. No, no, he is no great talker, that Guinea; nor, for that matter, can I say much in my own favour in this particular; but, seeing that we clapp’d a stopper on their movements, your Honour will allow that we did as well as if we had spoken as smartly as a young midshipman fresh from college, who is always for hailing a top in Latin, you know, sir, for want of understanding the proper language.” The Rover smiled, and he glanced his eye aside, apparently in quest of the form of our adventurer. Not seeing him at hand, he was tempted to push his covert inquiries a little further, though too much governed, by self-respect, to let the intense curiosity by which he was influenced escape him in any direct and manifest interrogation. But an instant’s recollection recalled him to himself, and he discarded the idea as unworthy of his character. “Your services shall not be forgotten. Here is gold,” he said, offering a handful of the metal to the negro, as the one nearest his own person. “You will divide it, like honest shipmates; and you may ever rely on my protection.” Scipio drew back, and, with a motion of his elbow, replied,— “His Honour will give ’em masser Harry.” “Your master Harry has it of his own, lad; he has no need of money.” “A S’ip no need ’em eider.” “You will please to overlook the fellow’s manners sir,” said Fid, very coolly interposing his own hand, and just as deliberately pocketing the offering “but I needn’t tell as old a seaman as your Honour, that Guinea is no country to scrape down the seams of a man’s behaviour in. Howsomever, I can say this much for him, which is, that he thanks your Honour just as heartily as if you had given him twice the sum. Make a bow to his Honour, boy, and do some credit to the company you have kept. And now, since this little difficulty about the money is gotten over, by my presence of mind, with your Honour’s leave, I’ll just step aloft, and cast loose the lashings of that bit of a tailor on the larboard fore-yard-arm. The chap was never made for a topman as you may see, sir, by the fashion in which he crosses his lower stanchions. That fellow will make a carrick bend with his legs as easily as I could do the same with a yarn of white line!”