Bill Adams,
Capt. of the Fore-top, H.M.S. _Vesuvius_.
Sir,--It was a dummy Capt. Crang buried. We cast the late E.
Tonkin overboard the second night in lat. 46/30, long. 7/15, or
thereabouts. By which time the feeling aboard had cooled down
and it seemed a waste of good spirit. The rum you paid for is
good rum. Hoping that you and Mr. Jope will find a use for it,
Your obedient servant,
S. Wilkins.
There was a long pause, through which Mr. Adams could be heard
breathing hard.
"But what are we to do with it?" asked Mr. Jope, scratching his head
in perplexity.
"Drink it. Wot else?"
"But where?"
"Oh," said Mr. Adams, "anywhere!"
"That's all very well," replied his friend. "You never had no
property, an' don't know its burdens. We'll have to hire a house for
this, an' live there till it's finished."
II.
THE MULTIPLYING CELLAR.
St. Dilp by Tamar has altered little in a hundred years. As it
stands to-day, embowered in cherry-trees, so (or nearly so) it stood
on that warm afternoon in the early summer of 1807, when two
weather-tanned seamen of His Majesty's Fleet came along its fore
street with a hand-barrow and a huge cask very cunningly lashed
thereto.
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