"Well, but you've not told us how we are all to get into it, Coble."
"More I have--well, that's funny; left out the whole burden of my song. Why, I consider that we had better now directly sing the song over again, all in chorus, and then we shall have damned the admiral a dozen times over; and Vanslyperken will hear us, and say to himself, 'They don't sing that song for nothing.' What do you say, Dick Short, you're first hofficer?"
"Hurrah! my lads, then," cried Bill Spurey; "now then, strike up, Jemmy, and let us give it lots of mouth."
The song which our readers have already heard from the lips of Jemmy Ducks, was then sung by the whole of the men, _con animo e strepito_, and two verses had been roared out, when Corporal Van Spitter, in great agitation, presented himself at the cabin door, where he found Mr Vanslyperken very busy summing up his accounts.
"Mein Gott, sar! dere is de mutiny in de _Yungfrau_," cried the corporal.
"Mutiny!" cried Vanslyperken, catching at his sword, which hung up on the bulk-head.
"Yaw, mynheer--de mutiny--hear now de ship's company."
Vanslyperken lent his ears, when the astounding chorus came rolling aft through the door of the cabin,
"I'll give you a bit of my mind, old hunks, Port Admiral--you be d---d"
"Why, it's the whole ship's company!" cried Vanslyperken.
"All but de Corporal Van Spitter, and de six marines," replied the corporal, raising his hand up to his head _a la militaire_.
"Shut the door, corporal. This is indeed mutiny and defiance," cried Vanslyperken, jumping up from his chair.
"It is von tyfel of a song," replied the corporal.
"I must find out the ringleaders, corporal; do you think that you could contrive to overhear what they say after the song is over? they will be consulting together, and we might find out something."
"Mynheer, I'm not very small for to creep in and listen," replied the corporal, casting his eyes down upon his huge carcass.
"Are they all forward?" inquired the lieutenant.
"There is the small boat astern; do you think you could get softly into it, haul it up to the bows, and lie there quite still? You would then hear what they said, without their thinking of it, now that it is dark."
"I will try, mynheer," replied the corporal, who quitted the cabin.
