"Me sober as judge," answered the helmsman, in a husky voice. "If de oder black fellers for'ard take too mush rum, no fault o' mine. I mate of de _Snapper_, and got character to lose." "Take care you don't lose it then, my friend," said Higson. "I see how it is. I shall have to put all hands on an allowance, and if you've got any rum stowed away I must have it brought aft or hove overboard. You understand me." "Yez, massa ossifer, berry right," answered the black, with a grin. "You can lie down, Needham, and be ready to keep watch with Mr Norris," said Higson. "If there isn't another nigger to relieve Sambo you can take the helm, and as the weather promises to hold fine we shall do very well." In less than a minute Dick was asleep with a sail over his head, and Higson paced the deck till past midnight. He then roused up Needham, and sent him down to call Norris. Tom also awaking sprang on deck. As soon as Higson had turned in, Sambo declared that he could no longer stand at the helm, and Needham taking it the black dived into the forepeak. A growling and chattering sound ascended, but no one appeared. It was evident that the negroes considered the buckra officers competent to manage the vessel, and had resolved to take their ease. At daylight the occupants of the cabin came on deck well-baked. They talked of heaving-to and bathing, but the fin of a shark appearing above the surface made them change their minds, and they refreshed themselves by heaving buckets of water over each other. The lazy crew had not yet appeared. "_We'll_ soon make them show themselves," said Higson; and he, Timmins, and Norris, each taking a bucket full to the brim, hove the contents simultaneously down the forepeak. A chorus of shrieks and shouts instantly followed. "Oh, ki! what happen! Oh lud--oh lud--we all go to be drowned!" exclaimed the blacks, as springing from their berths they tried to make their way on deck. Quasho, with eyes only half-open, bolted right against Higson, sending him sprawling on the deck; the next man capsized Timmins, and would have bolted overboard in his fright had not Tom and Gerald caught him and hauled him back. The head of the big mate next appeared, when those below catching him by the legs pulled him down again, on which he began belabouring them with head and fists and heels till one by one they made their escape, leaving him knocking his skull against the deck, under the belief that he had some of them still under him. "A pretty set of fellows you are!" exclaimed Higson, rising to his feet. "What would have become of us if we had been caught in a squall and thrown on our beam-ends? No more grog for any of you this cruise-- you'll understand that?"