I was taken regularly aback, and blackie saw it; so he now assumed an easier mien, as if conscious he had made a favourable impression.
"But what brought you here, my good man?" said I.
"De fear of death," he promptly replied. "It has enter de foolis head of de blacks dat I was de cause of de attack--dat I was in league wid you, being, as you see, one Englis gentleman like yousefs." (I had great difficulty in maintaining my gravity at all this.) "So my wife dere creep to where I hide when de evening come, and say"--here he took hold of Sprawl's hand in both of his, and looked up tenderly into his face--(any one having our friend Liston's countenance, when the Beauty is shamming Bashful, painted on the retina of his mind's eye, has a tolerable idea of the expression of Davie's face. Oh for an hour of Wilkie to have caught the two cherubs as a group!)--"'Quacco'--him say '_Hokey doodle doo_.'"
"Say what?" quoth Sprawl, like to choke with suppressed laughter--"Say what?"
The poor fellow regarded the lieutenant for some time with the greatest surprise, murmuring aside, "What can de good gentleman see to amuse him so mosh?" then aloud, "Him say in de Eboe tongue, 'you old willain, your troat is to be slice dis wery night.'--'De debil,' say I, '_Jooram junkee pop_, say I; dat is, it shan't if I can help it. So I bolt--run away--launch dory--and here I is, Serjeant Quacco, ready once more to serve his Majesty Kin Shorge--God save de Kin!"
Here old Bloody Politeful fairly exploded into the most uproarious mirth. The negro looked at him in great amazement for some time, until at length the infection caught me, when blowing all my manners to the winds, off I went at score after our friend. The peculiarities of Davie Doublepipe's voice were more conspicuous in his joyous moments, if that were possible, than when he spoke calmly; and as he shouted out, "I say, Benjie, _Jooram junkee pop_," in one tune, and "Why, Lanyard, _Hokey doodle doo_," in the other, the alternations were so startling to poor Quacco's ear, that he looked at the lieutenant and then at me first of all in great alarm, and with his eye on the door, as if to ascertain that there was no impediment to a rapid retreat. At last he seemed to comprehend the mystery, and caught the contagion of our mirth also, shouting as loud as either of us--"What dem white gentlemen can see to laugh at--what funny ting it can be? ha, ha, ha--dat big one speak wery comical; one time squeak squeak like one leetle guinea-pig, den grunt grunt like de big boar; he must surely be two mans tie up in one kin--ha, ha, ha!" The negro instantly saw the advantage he had gained over us, in being the cause of so much merriment, and he appeared determined not to lose it. "So you shee, massa Captain--you really mosh not be asame, after all, to be shivel to me and my vife--who is here cowering behind de door; I bring him dat you may see him take care of, for de men dere forward don't behave well--none at all."