Samuel Alexander White

“ Through holes in the roof the fog was dripping, hitting the hot top of the lantern with a sputter or streaking down the un-rinded timbers that held together the aperture-filled walls. Underfoot a slab floor bowed and sprung to the tread, a bare floor, knotted, uneven, yawning with two-inch cracks, littered with its own bark that the foot skinned off at every step. ”

“ Yet old Peter might have been a sovereign in a palace so merrily he laughed at Taylor's account of Beauport's trickery. The predicament of the sly Jacques filled the hardy old mariner with delight.
"Ciel!" he chortled. "That Jacques Beauport! He is the wily rascal. No fool, Jacques, when it comes to anything he wants. But he is caught this time. But wait—you will see. Admiral Pellier is a man of honor and fairness. Oui, and a man of discipline. He will draw the truth from Jacques as a man corkscrews a bottle of brandy. ”