between the puffs at a fresh cigar. "You need not shoot any of the women,
and what more does, a man want? Come, no more words, but to the duty
heartily. Every one expects it of you, since no one can do it half so
well; and if you ever get back to Dodgeopolis, there will be matter for a
paragraph every day of the year for the next six months. If any thing
serious happen to you, trust to me to do your memory justice."

"Captain, captain, this trifling with the future is blasphemous! Men
seldom talk of death with impunity, and it really hurts my feelings to
touch on such awful subjects so lightly. I will go, for I do not well see
how the matter is to be helped; but let us go amicably, and with such
presents as will secure a good reception and a safe return."

"Mr. Monday takes the liquor-case of the Dane, and you are welcome to any
thing that is left, but the foremast. _That_ I shall fight for, even if
lions come out of the desert to help the Arabs."

Mr. Dodge had many more objections, some of which he urged openly, and
more of which he felt in his inmost spirit. But for the unfortunate dive
into the water, he certainly would have pleaded his immunities as a
passenger, and plumply refused to be put forward on such an occasion; but
he felt that he was a disgraced man, and that some decided act of spirit
was necessary to redeem his character. The neutrality observed by the
Arabs, moreover, greatly encouraged him; for he leaned to an opinion
Captain Truck had expressed, that so long as a strong-armed party remained
in the wreck, the sheik, if a man of any moderation and policy, would not
proceed to violence.

"You may tell him, gentlemen," continued Mr. Truck, "that as soon as I
have whipped the foremast out of the Dane, I will evacuate, and leave him