Fortunately I had
anticipated these harrowing scenes, and had provided a bottle of
champagne for the occasion; and after I had consumed two or three
glassfuls to encourage them, showing how easy this kind of medicine
is to take, I prevailed on them to drink the remainder. At length,
about ten o'clock in the evening, they began to suspect that their
malady was not going to prove fatal, and, seeing them so much better,
I went up to get some fresh air. There at the stern still sat the
stoical old gaucho, looking extremely miserable.
"Good evening, old comrade," said I; "will you smoke a cigar?"
"Young master, you seem to have a good heart," he returned, shaking
his head at the proffered cigar, "do, for God's sake, get me a little
rum. I am dying for something to warm my inside and stop my head from
going round like a top, but nothing can I get from these jabbering
foreign brutes on board."
"Yes, why not, my old friend," said I, and, going to the master of the
boat, I succeeded in getting a pint of rum in a bottle.
The old fellow clutched it with eager delight and took a long draught.
"Ah!" he said, patting first the bottle, then his stomach, "this puts
new life into a man! Will this voyage never end, master? When I am on
horseback I can forget that I am old, but these cursed waves remind
me that I have lived many years."
I lit my cigar and sat down to have a talk with him.
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