“Now, mister lawyer,” said Admiral Bell, who had about him a large share of the habits of a rough sailor.  “Now, mister lawyer, here is a glass first to our better acquaintance, for d——­e, if I don’t like you!”

“You are very good, sir.”

“Not at all.  There was a time, when I’d just as soon have thought of asking a young shark to supper with me in my own cabin as a lawyer, but I begin to see that there may be such a thing as a decent, good sort of a fellow seen in the law; so here’s good luck to you, and you shall never want a friend or a bottle while Admiral Bell has a shot in the locker.”

“Gammon,” said Jack.

“D—­n you, what do you mean by that?” roared the admiral, in a furious tone.

“I wasn’t speaking to you,” shouted Jack, about two octaves higher.  “It’s two boys in the street as is pretending they’re a going to fight, and I know d——­d well they won’t.”

“Hold your noise.”

“I’m going.  I wasn’t told to hold my noise, when our nobs were being scuttled off Beyrout.”

“Never mind him, mister lawyer,” added the admiral.  “He don’t know what he’s talking about.  Never mind him.  You go on and tell me all you know about the—­the—­”

“The vampyre!”

“Ah!  I always forget the names of strange fish.  I suppose, after all, it’s something of the mermaid order?”

“That I cannot say, sir; but certainly the story, in all its painful particulars, has made a great sensation all over the country.”

“Indeed!”

“Yes, sir.  You shall hear how it occurred.  It appears that one night Miss Flora Bannersworth, a young lady of great beauty, and respected and admired by all who knew her was visited by a strange being who came in at the window.”

“My eye,” said Jack, “it waren’t me, I wish it had a been.”

“So petrified by fear was she, that she had only time to creep half out of the bed, and to utter one cry of alarm, when the strange visitor seized her in his grasp.”

“D—­n my pig tail,” said Jack, “what a squall there must have been, to be sure.”

“Do you see this bottle?” roared the admiral.

“To be sure, I does; I think as it’s time I seed another.”

“You scoundrel, I’ll make you feel it against that d——­d stupid head of yours, if you interrupt this gentleman again.”

“Don’t be violent.”

“Well, as I was saying,” continued the attorney, “she did, by great good fortune, manage to scream, which had the effect of alarming the whole house.  The door of her chamber, which was fast, was broken open.”

“Yes, yes—­”

“Ah,” cried Jack.

“You may imagine the horror and the consternation of those who entered the room to find her in the grasp of a fiend-like figure, whose teeth were fastened on her neck, and who was actually draining her veins of blood.”

“The devil!”

“Before any one could lay hands sufficiently upon the figure to detain it, it had fled precipitately from its dreadful repast.  Shots were fired after it in vain.”