When within hailing distance, Bill was ready with his favourite prefix to a query, "What th'——" but he was arrested in the completion of his question by the strange antics of the captain, who waved his arms, shook his fist, and after pointing with a huge forefinger to the deck below, placed his hand over his mouth, which Bill rightly concluded enjoined silence.
Having caught the headline and made fast the spring, the watchman lifted his eyes in puzzled interrogation to the man on the bridge, who, he noted, was wearing the uniform of his rank instead of the usual greasy cap and blue jersey that was his accustomed raiment.
Cupping his hands in the form of a megaphone, the captain leaned far over the little bridge of his boat, and whispered in a voice that carried like a fog-horn, "Got a la
