And now, lads, you
can lay out for ten minutes, and then we can fasten up to a bough
and see what is in the hamper. We have done our work earlier than
I had expected, and can take it easy."
The steward had provided them with an ample store of food, and
the men ate their hunks of cold meat and bread, and passed round
the pannikins of grog, with great contentment, while the officers
divided a cold chicken and a bottle of claret.
"Now, men," the lieutenant said, when they had finished, "you can
have a quarter of an hour's smoke. You must open the lantern in
the bottom of the boat, and hold a jacket over it to prevent the
light falling on any of you."
When the men had lit their pipes the lantern was passed aft, and
while the coxswain put his jacket over it, the lieutenant lit a
cigar.
"You smoke, don't you, Balderson?"
"Yes, sir, I began when we came up the river; the doctor said it
is a good thing to keep off miasma."
"Very well, then light up; I think that it is a good thing myself.
We have done a very satisfactory night's work, and I think we see
our way now to getting rid of most of those piratical craft, which
will not only be a benefit to traders on the coast of the river,
but will greatly please all the other chiefs, and will enable them
to hold their own against Sehi.
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