Their
hands trembled, their eyes shone, they laughed and
shouted like children as they cleared their camp: and
some one beginning to whistle "Marching through
Georgia," the remainder of the packing was conducted,
amidst a thousand interruptions, to these martial
strains. But the strong head of Wicks was only partly
turned.
"Boys," he said, "easy all! We're going aboard of a
ship of which we don't know nothing; we've got a chest
of specie, and seeing the weight, we can't turn to and
deny it. Now, suppose she was fishy; suppose it was
some kind of a Bully Hayes business! It's my opinion
we'd better be on hand with the pistols."
Every man of the party but Hemstead had some kind of a
revolver; these were accordingly loaded and disposed
about the persons of the castaways, and the packing was
resumed and finished in the same rapturous spirit as it
was begun. The sun was not yet ten degrees above the
eastern sea, but the brig was already close in and hove
to, before they had launched the boat and sped,
shouting at the oars, towards the passage.
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