"
"Just so; but the air a sailor breathes when he is at home consists
almost entirely of tobacco smoke. At last, I could make out twenty or
thirty rough-looking fellows seated on each side of a long deal table
covered with bottles, glasses, and pipes. Dan Hooligan, the landlord,
sat at the top--a fit president for such an assembly. He was partly a
smuggler, partly a publican, and wholly a sinner. I should say that
the liquor consumed at that table did not much good to the revenue.
How Dan contrived to escape the laws, was a mystery perhaps best known
to the police."
"So you are a pal of One-eyed Dick's, are you?' said he.
"'Rather,' said I, adopting the slang of the place.
"'Well,' said he, 'Dick has been a good customer of mine, and all his
pals are welcome at the 'Molly.' I have not seen him lately,
however--how goes it with him now?'
"'Right as a trivet,' said I, 'and making lots of rhino.'
"'Glad to hear it; and what latitude does he hail in now?'
"'That,' said I, 'is private and confidential.'
"'Oh,' said he, 'there are no outsiders here, we are all sworn friends
of Dick's, every mother's son of us.'
"'Then,' said I, 'Dick is off the Cove in the schooner _Nancy_, of
Brest,'"
"Holloa, Willis," cried Jack, "there was a fib!"
"Well, I told you to look out for something of that sort when I
began.
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