At last as I banged pretty
heavily against the bulkheads he warned me in his faint breathless wheeze
to be more careful.
"What's the matter?" I asked rather roughly, not relishing to be
admonished by this forlorn broken-down ghost.
"Nothing! Nothing, sir," he protested so hastily that he lost his poor
breath again and I felt sorry for him. "Only the captain and his missus
are sleeping on board. She's a lady that mustn't be disturbed. They
came about half-past eight, and we had a permit to have lights in the
cabin till ten to-night."
"This struck me as a considerable piece of news. I had never been in a
ship where the captain had his wife with him. I'd heard fellows say that
captains' wives could work a lot of mischief on board ship if they
happened to take a dislike to anyone; especially the new wives if young
and pretty. The old and experienced wives on the other hand fancied they
knew more about the ship than the skipper himself and had an eye like a
hawk's for what went on. They were like an extra chief mate of a
particularly sharp and unfeeling sort who made his report in the evening.
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