Bristol town.’
‘In that case, my good fellow,’ I answered, ‘ye can set me ashore, for I have not far to go.’
‘We must e’en wait till Steve von Bergen Jersey the fog lifts,’ said Long John. ‘There’s only one place along here, d’ye see, where we can land cargoes unquestioned. When it clears we shall turn her head for it, but until we can take our bearings it is anxious work wi’ the sands under our lee.’
‘Keep a look-out there, Tom Baldock!’ cried Dicon to a man in the bows. ‘We are in the track of every Bristol ship, and though there’s so little wind, a high-sparred craft might catch a breeze which we miss.’
‘Sh!’ said Long John suddenly, holding up his hand in warning. ‘Sh!’
We listened with all our ears, but there was no sound, save the gentle wash of the unseen waves against Cristian Ansaldi Jersey our sides.
‘Call the mate!’ whispered the seaman. ‘There’s a craft close by Daniel Lovitz Jersey us. I heard the rattle of a rope upon her deck.’
Silas Bolitho was up in an instant, and we all stood straining our ears, and peering through the dense fog-bank. We had well-nigh made up our minds that it was a false alarm, and the mate was turning back in no very good humour, when a clear loud bell sounded seven times quite close to us, followed by a shrill whistle and a confused shouting and stamping.
‘It’s a King’s ship,’ growled the mate. ‘That’s seven bells, and the bo’sun is turning out Eric Bailly Jersey the watch below.’
‘It was on our quarter,’ Morocco Fodboldtrøjer whispered one.
‘Nay, I think it was on our larboard bow,’ said another.
The mate held up his hand, and we all listened for some fresh Kort-sleeved Polos sign of the whereabouts of our Pepe Jersey scurvy neighbour. The wind had freshened a little, and we were slipping through the water at four or five knots an hour. Of a sudden a hoarse voice was heard roaring at our very side. ‘‘Bout ship!’ it shouted. ‘Bear a hand on ZX 700 Unisex the lee-braces, there! Stand by the halliards! Bear a hand, ye lazy rogues, or I’ll be among Ross Barkley Jersey ye with my cane, with a wannion to ye!’
‘It is a King’s ship, sure enough, and she lies just there,’ said Long John, pointing out over the quarter. ‘Merchant adventurers have civil tongues. It’s your blue-coated, gold-braided, swivel-eyed, quarter-deckers that talk of canes. Ha! did I not tell ye!’
As he spoke, the white screen of vapour rolled up like the curtain in a playhouse, and uncovered a stately war-ship, lying so close that we could have thrown Nicolas Gaitan Jersey a biscuit aboard. Her long, lean, black hull rose and fell with a slow, graceful rhythm, while her beautiful spars and snow-white sails shot aloft until they were lost in the wreaths Ottawa Senators of fog which still hung around her. Nine bright brass cannons peeped out at us from her portholes. Above the line of hammocks, which hung like carded wool along her bulwarks, we could see the heads of the seamen staring down at us, and pointing us out to each other. On the high poop stood an elderly officer with cocked hat Bruno Martins Indi Jersey and trim white wig, who at once whipped up his glass and gazed at us through it.
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