When the yawl
reached the side of the periagua, he dropped a small Spanish coin into the
open palm of the negro, and sprang on the side of the latter, with an
exertion of muscle that sent the little boat he quitted half-way back
towards the shore, leaving the frightened black to steady himself, in his
rocking tenement, in the best manner he could.
The tread and posture of the stranger, when he gained the half-deck of the
periagua, was finely nautical, and confident to audacity. He seemed to
analyze the half-maritime character of the crew and passengers, at a
glance, and to feel that sort of superiority over his companions, which
men of his profession were then a little too wont to entertain towards
those whose ambition could be bounded by terra-firma. His eye turned
upward, at the simple rig and modest sails of the periagua, while his
upper lip curled with the knowing expression of a critic. Then kicking the
fore-sheet clear of its elect, and suffering the sail to fill, he stepped
from one butter-tub to another, making a stepping-stone of the lap of a
countryman by the way, and alighted in the stern-sheets in the midst of
the party of Alderman Van Beverout, with the agility and fearlessness of a
feathered Mercury. With a coolness that did infinite credit to his powers
for commandirg, his next act was to dispossess the amazed schipper of the
helm, taking the tiller into his own hands, with as much composure as if
he were the every-day occupant of the post.
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