uncommonly warm and still, with no air coming below. The fare was homely too, the main dish being the roast beef of Old Calabria, a great piece of one of those Italian buffaloes known as grey friars in the Navy and shipped to Malta when they were quite past work; and this was followed by figgy-dowdy.
'Now that is what I call a really good basis for literature,' said Jack, when the cloth had been drawn, the King's health drunk, and fresh decanters set upon the table. 'When is the sweepstake to begin?'
'Directly, sir,' said Pullings. 'Thompson, pass round the voting-papers, place the ballot-box, collect the stakes, and hand along the glass. We have agreed, sir, that each gentleman is to limit himself to a four-and-a-half-minute glass; but he may explain the rest of the poem in prose, speaking quick. And we have agreed, sir, that there is to be no applause, nor no cat-calls, for fear of influencing the vote. It is all to be as fair as Habeas Corpus.'
'Or Nunc dimittis,' said the purser. But although Mr Adams had been very active in framing the rules, he and others turned shy at the last moment, and the pearly nautilus passed round for the stakes held only a half-guinea, an assortment of English silver, and three pieces of eight, the contribution of the remaining competitors, Mowett, Rowan, and Driver, the new Marine officer shipped at Malta, a very ample, pink, amiable young man with weak eyes and a way of chuckling to himself. His powers were as yet unknown to the gunroom. They drew lots, and Rowan began. 'Now, gentlemen,' he said, speaking quick and in prose, 'this is part of a poem about the Courageux, Captain Wilkinson, running plumb on to the Anholt reef by night, wind at south-west, double-reefed topsails and forecourse, making eight knots. Turn the glass.' Pullings turned the sand-glass and without the slightest change of tone or pace or the least concession to the conventions of recital Rowan went straight on, his jolly round face beaming on the company,
'Dismal was this, many did despair
That her dissolution was very near;
She thumped heavy, and masts did play
That in their obedience to the prow, would jump away.
Awful the grinding noise of keel and heel
With an unusual motion made the crew to reel,
The rudder being most oppressed and bound
But soon it got released and went to the ground.
Sail first being set to press her over the reef,
But striking harder without relief
'Twas instantly chewed up and fasted again anew
With willingness and zeal by her gallant crew.
At last the deleterious order to prepare
To throw the cannon overboard. Oh what despair!
The officer of the third post ventured to state
Oh noble chieftain pray hesitate!
('I happened to have the watch, sir,' he said in an aside to Jack.)
Remember Sire, said this self same third,
With due submission, pray let me be heard,
Your own experiences of its baleful effects
As often tried and as often made wrecks.
Guns lying together on the sand equal to rocks annoy
The bottom of the bark, they may soon destroy;
And now it's blowing a gale of wind, what hopes
Impossible to save our lives could we get out the boats.
Stand fast, the bold commander said, 'Tis true
The wind has shifted for us. Set topsails anew
Square sails set and braced all aback. See hence
The wonderful care of Almighty's Providence.'
In spite of the rules there was a distinct murmur of approval at the ship's coming off, for it was clearly understood from Rowan's expression, and indeed from his presence among them, that the Courageux had come off; but there was an even more distinct expression of scepticism about the third lieutenant's words to his captain, Wilkinson being a testy gentleman: Rowan felt this, and observed, 'The piece about Noble Chieftan is poetic, you understand.'
'I never thought you would bring her off in time,' said Pullings. 'There were not above three grains of sand left. Next.'
Mowett took a draught of port, turned a little pale, and said, 'My piece is a fragment too, part of something in the epical line in three cantos about people sailing in these waters or to be more exact somewhat more easterly, off Cape Spado. They run into dirty weather, furl topsails, send down topgallant yards, and then reef courses; and this is a description of the manoeuvre. But it is preceded by a simile that I rather flatter myself - by a simile that would fall into place better if I went back to Now to the north, from Afric's burning shore, A troop of porpoises their course explore but I doubt I could get all that in and it may seem a little strange without but anyhow here goes.' He nodded to Pullings to turn the glass, and with his eyes fixed on the falling sand he began in a hollow moaning voice,
