Snarleyyow; or, The Dog Fiend. Фредерик Марриет

      “Hurrah! my lads, then,” cried Bill Spurey; “now, then, strike up, Jemmy, and let us give it lots of mouth.”

      The song which our readers have already heard from the lips of Jemmy Ducks was then sung by the whole of the men, con animo e strepito, and two verses had been roared out, when Corporal Van Spitter, in great agitation, presented himself at the cabin-door, where he found Mr. Vanslyperken very busy summing up his accounts.

      “Mein Gott, sar! dere is the mutiny in the Yungfrau,” cried the corporal.

      “Mutiny!” cried Vanslyperken, catching at his sword, which hung up on the bulk-head.

      “Yaw, mynheer—de mutiny—hear now de ship’s company.”

      Vanslyperken lent his ears, when the astounding chorus came rolling aft through the door of the cabin—

      I’ll give you a bit of my mind, old hunks;

       Port admiral—you be damned.

      “Bow, wow, wow,” barked Snarleyyow.

      “Why, it’s the whole ship’s company!” cried Vanslyperken.

      “All but de Corporal Van Spitter, and de six marines,” replied the corporal, raising his hand up to his head à la militaire.

      “Shut the door, corporal. This is indeed mutiny and defiance,” cried Vanslyperken, jumping up from his chair.

      “It is one tyfel of a song,” replied the corporal.

      “I must find out the ringleaders, corporal; do you think that you could contrive to overhear what they say after the song is over? they will be consulting together, and we may find out something.”

      “Mynheer, I’m not very small for to creep in and listen,” replied the corporal, casting his eyes down upon his huge carcase.

      “Are they all forward?” inquired the lieutenant.

      “Yes, mynheer; not one soul baft.”

      “There is the small boat astern; do you think you could get softly into it, haul it up to the bows, and lie there quite still? You would then hear what they said, without their thinking of it, now that it is dark.”

      “I will try, mynheer,” replied the corporal, who quitted the cabin.

      But there were others who condescended to listen as well as the corporal, and in this instance every word which had passed had been overheard by Smallbones, who had been for some hours out of his hammock. When the corporal’s hand touched the lock of the door, Smallbones made a hasty retreat.

      Corporal Van Spitter went on the quarter-deck, which he found vacant; he hauled up the boat to the counter, and, by degrees, lowered into it his unwieldy carcase, which almost swamped the little conveyance. He then waited a little, and with difficulty forced the boat up against the strong flood-tide that was running, till at last he gained the chess-tree of the cutter, when he shortened in the painter (or rope that held the boat), made it fast to a ring-bolt without being perceived, and there he lay concealed, not daring to move, for fear of making a noise.

      Smallbones had, however, watched him carefully, and as the corporal sat in the middle thwart, with his face turned aft, catching but imperfectly the conversation of the men, the lad separated the painter with a sharp knife, and at the same time dropping his foot down, gave the bow of the boat a shove off, which made it round with the stream. The tide was then running five or six miles an hour, and before the corporal, in the utter darkness, could make out what had occurred, or raise his heavy carcase to assist himself, he was whirled away by the current clear of the vessel, and soon disappeared from the sight of Smallbones, who was watching his progress.

      It is true that the corporal shouted for assistance when he found himself astern, and also that he was heard by the men, but Smallbones had leaped among them, and in few words told them what he had done; so of course they took no notice, but rubbed their hands with delight at the idea of the corporal being adrift like a bear in a washing-tub, and they all prayed for a gale of wind to come on that he might be swamped, and most of them remained on deck to hear what Mr. Vanslyperken would say and do when the corporal’s absence was discovered. Mr. Vanslyperken remained nearly two hours without sending for the corporal; at last, surprised at not seeing him return, he went on deck. The men on the forecastle perceiving this, immediately disappeared gently down the fore-hatchway. Mr. Vanslyperken walked forward, and found that every one was, as he supposed, either in bed or below; for, in harbour, the corporal kept one of the watches, and this night it was his first watch. Vanslyperken looked over the side all round the cutter, and could see no boat and no Corporal Van Spitter, and it immediately occurred to him that the corporal must have gone adrift, and he was very much puzzled how to act. It would be flood-tide for two hours more, and then the whole ebb would run before it was daylight. Corporal Van Spitter would traverse the whole Zuyder Zee before they might find him. Unless he had the fortune to be picked up by some small craft, he might perish with cold and hunger. He could not sail without him; for what could he do without Corporal Van Spitter, his protection, his factotum, his distributor of provisions, etcetera. The loss was irreparable, and Mr. Vanslyperken, when he thought of the loss of the widow’s favour, and the loss of his favourite, acknowledged with bitterness that his star was not in the ascendant. After some reflection, Mr. Vanslyperken thought that as nothing could be gained by making the fact known, the wisest thing that he could do was to go to bed and say nothing about it, leaving the whole of the ulterior proceedings until the loss of the boat should be reported to him in the morning. Having arranged this in his mind, Mr. Vanslyperken took two or three turns more, and then went down and turned in.