“I read it in a paper last week.  Isn’t it great?  It’s by a man with a funny name,—­I wish I could remember it!  ‘An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay!’ That’s the way the dawn does come up over there, isn’t it?  Ever been in China, Squire?”

“No, I haint,” said Gregory.  “Where be you fellers goin’ to put me ashore?  That’s what I want to know.”

“All in good time, Squire, all in good time.  Watch this,—­I bet you can’t do it!”

And Sprague made a clean dive and scoot under the water, came up thirty feet away, and commenced to float, facing the boat, and waggling one big toe at Gregory the Gauger.

It did not take me two seconds to know what I wanted to do, nor two minutes to get overboard.  The water was cold, but I swam around the yacht, before I climbed out again.  One by one the others came up from below, and they all jumped over for a swim, except Gregory and the Chief.  The latter went poking about, in his silent, methodical way, paying no attention to the orders which Sprague fired at him.

“Food! food!” called the banjo-player, climbing aboard; “my wasted frame cries aloud for food.  Get out the frying-pan, Chief, and the coffee-pot!  Move about more briskly,—­remember that I have been many days on bread and water in a dungeon ...  Oh, hang it!”

He floundered about in his shirt, which he had put on wrong side foremost in his hurry.

“Fish out those eggs, and see if there are any rolls left,—­I’ll match you for yours, Squire.  You won’t be hungry, you haven’t been in swimming.”

“Ketch me goin’ into that water!” returned Gregory, “I’ll make my abbalootions right here.”

And he proceeded to wash his face and hands over the stern of the boat.  We were all very much awake now, very hungry, and no longer tired.  The swim had opened our eyes.  The drowsy moonlight world had gone and given place to one of sunshine.  A breeze rattled the halliards against the mast, and ruffled the blue water of the bay in little patches.  We hurried into our clothes, while the Chief warned us to keep out of the cockpit, and not get everything wet.  Sprague struggled with his shirt, and declaimed his favorite poem in a muffled tone.

“‘And the flyin’ fishes play,’—­And speaking of flying-fishes, where is Simon?  Has he had his morning swim? ...  Oh, there he is, —­paddling about like a good one!  Swims like a duck, doesn’t he, Squire?”

“There’s nothing for breakfast except bacon and eggs,” said the Chief.

“And coffee and rolls,” added Pete, “what more do you want, you old lemon?”

“No, there are only three rolls.  Some of us will have to eat crackers.”

“I will eat marline-spikes,” said Mr. Daddles, “if you’ve got any of them on board.  I’ve never seen one,—­though I’ve heard of them a great deal.”

“I’ll eat crackers,” declared Jimmy Toppan.

“So will I,” said Sprague, “and glad to get ’em.  I might be gnawing a bone in jail, now, instead.”