At length, however, all hands of us seemed to have fallen asleep, but towards the dawning I was awakened by repeated bursts of suppressed laughter, and upon looking in the direction from whence the sounds proceeded, I was surprised beyond all measure to observe Transom in a corner of the room in his trowsers and shirt, squatted like a tailor on his hams, with one of the sable damsels on her knees beside him holding a candle, while his Majesty’s Post Captain was plying his needle in a style and with a dexterity that would have charmed our friend Stultze exceedingly, and every now and then bending double over his work, and swinging his body backwards and forwards with the water welling from his eyes, laughing all the while like to choke himself. As for his bronze candlestick, I thought she would have expired on the spot, with her white teeth glancing like ivory, and the tears running down her cheeks, as she every now and then clapped a handkerchief on her mouth to smother the uncontrollable uproariousness of her mirth. “Why, captain, what spree is this?” said I. “Never you mind, but come here. I say, Mr Cringle, do you see him piping away there”--and there he was, sure enough, still gurgling through the wild cane--with his black guardian, whose province it was to have removed the poultice, sound asleep, snoring in the huge chair at Bang’s head, wherein he had established himself, while the candle at his patient’s cheek was flickering in the socket. My superior was evidently bent on wickedness. “Get up and put on your trowsers, man.” I did so. “Now wait a bit till I cooper him--Here, my darling”--to the sable virgin who was now on the qui vive, bustling about--“here,” said the captain, sticking out a leg of Bang’s trowsers, “hold you there, my dear.” She happened to be a native of Haiti, and comprehended his French. “Now hold you that, Mr Cringle.” I took hold of the other leg, and held it in a fitting position, while Transom deliberately sewed them both up. “Now for the coat sleeves” We sealed them in a similar manner. “So--now for his shirt.” We sewed up the stem, and then the stern, converting it into an outlandish-looking pillow-case, and finally both sleeves; and last of all, we got two live land-crabs from the servants, by dint of persuasion and a little plata, and clapped one into each stocking foot. We then dressed ourselves, and when all was ready, we got a piece of tape for a landyard, and made one end fast to the handle of a large earthen water-jar, full to the brim, which we placed on Bangs pillow, and passed the other end round the neck of the sleeping negro. “Now get you to bed,” said the captain to the dingy handmaiden, “and stand by to be off, Mr Cringle.” He stepped to Don Ricardo’s bedroom door, and tapped loudly.