“As sartin as I stands on this here forecastle—­a-kissing and slobbering the lieutenant for all the world like a Christian,” replied Smallbones, despondingly.

“Then he flare fire on me wid his one eye,” said the corporal.

“Warn’t even wet,” continued Smallbones.

Here there was another summons for Corporal Van Spitter.

“Mein Gott, I will not go,” exclaimed the corporal.

“Yes, yes, go, corporal,” replied Smallbones; “it’s the best way to face the devil.”

“Damn the devil!—­and that’s not swearing,” exclaimed Short—­such a long sentence out of his mouth was added to the marvels of the night—­some even shrugged up their shoulders at that, as if it also were supernatural.

“I always say so,” said Jansen, “I always say so—­no tog, no tog, after all.”

“No, no,” replied Coble, shaking his head.

Corporal Van Spitter was again summoned, but the corporal was restive as a rhinoceros.

“Corporal,” said Smallbones, who, since the glass of grog, was his sincere ally, and had quite forgotten and forgiven his treatment, “go down and see if you can’t worm the truth out of him.”

“Ay, do, do!” exclaimed the rest.

“Smallbones—­Smallbones—­wanted aft,” was the next summons.

“And here I go,” exclaimed Smallbones.  “I defy the devil and all his works—­as we said on Sunday at the workhouse.”

“That lad’s a prime bit of stuff,” observed Spurey, “I will say that.”

“Yes,” replied Short.

In a few seconds Smallbones came hastily up the ladder.

“Corporal, you must go to the cabin directly.  He is in a devil of a rage—­asked me why you wouldn’t come—­told him that you had seen something dreadful—­didn’t know what.  Tell him you saw the devil at his elbow—­see if it frightens him.”

“Yes, do,” exclaimed the others.

Corporal Van Spitter made up his mind; he pulled down the skirts of his jacket, descended the ladder, and walked aft into the cabin.  At the sight of Snarleyyow the corporal turned pale—­at the sight of the corporal, Mr Vanslyperken turned red.

“What’s the meaning of all this?” exclaimed Vanslyperken, in a rage.  “What is all this about, corporal?  Explain your conduct, sir.  What made you rush out of the cabin in that strange manner?”

“Mein Gott, Mynheer Vanslyperken, I came for orders but I no come keep company wid de tyfel.”

“With the devil!—­what do you mean?” exclaimed Vanslyperken, alarmed.  The corporal, perceiving that the lieutenant was frightened, then entered into a detail, that when he had entered the cabin he had seen the devil sitting behind Mr Vanslyperken, looking over his shoulder, and grinning with his great eyes, while he patted him over the back with his left hand and fondled the dog with his right.

This invention of the corporal’s, “whom Mr Vanslyperken considered as a stanch friend and incapable of treachery, had a great effect upon Mr Vanslyperken.  It immediately rushed into his mind that he had attempted murder but a few days before, and that, that very day he had been a traitor to his country—­quite sufficient for the devil to claim him as his own.