"
"Ay, an' a friend was helpin' him, an' here's a dozen of us a-helpin' of
one supercargo."
"And I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Bulger. But what were you cheering
for?"
"Cheerin'! Why, you wouldn't guess. 'Twas General Clive, matey."
"General Clive!"
"Ay, General Clive, him what chased the mounseers out o' Fort St. George
with a marlinspike. I didn't know him at fust, comin' up behind t'other
chap; but when I seed that purple coat with the gold lace and the face of
him above it I knowed him. In course there was no more fight for us then;
'twas hip-hip hurray and up with our hangers. Clive, he smiled and
touched his hat. 'Bulger,' says he, 'you en't much fatter--'"
"Does he know you, then?"
"Know me! In course he does. Wasn't I bo'sun's mate on board the Indiaman
as took him east twelve year ago or more? That was afore I got this here
button hook o' mine. Ay, I remember him well, a-trampin' up an' down deck
with his hands in his pockets an' his mouth set tight an' his chin on his
stock, never speakin' to a soul, in the doldrums if ever a lad was. Why,
we all thought there was no more spirit in him than in the old wooden
figurehead--leastways, all but me.
"'I may be wrong,' says I to old Tinsley the bo'sun, 'I may be wrong,'
says I, 'but I be main sure that young sad down-in-the-mouth have got a
blazin' fire somewhere in his innards.'
"Ay, and time showed it. There was a lot of cadets aboard as poked fun at
the quiet chap an' talked him over, a-winkin' their eyes.
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