--it felt
like it and looked like it, and that man Trego fits into the game to a T.
I thought he was a mighty shady customer from the first look I got at
him, when he come alongside and bossed things. When he got that knife
throwed in him I thought I'd come down here and have a look around on my
own hook, and thar ye be, cap'n."

"But Sally Ann! What are we going to do with it? We can't leave it here,
can we?"

"Maybe it would be better, at that," said Harris. "But I look at it this
way, cap'n--somebody knows it's here, that's what. Maybe the parson;
maybe that Mr. Trenhum; maybe Petrak knowed about it; maybe Buckrow and
Long Jim knows; but, anyhow, whoever had that knife hooked into Trego
knowed, and ye can put that in yer pipe and smoke it."

"But I don't believe anybody would broach cargo. We can keep the door
locked, and bury this under a mess of stuff, say spare chain and a lot of
old heavy gear."

"Broach Tophet!" snorted Harris. "Ye call this cargo, Cap'n Riggs? Wal,
if ye do, I don't! Broach cargo! Think a man that would kill Trego,
or get him killed, would stop at broaching cargo to git his paws on
this?"

"That's true enough," said Riggs. "It's bad business to have it aboard,
Mr. Harris. I hope nobody in the ship knows about it. If they find out it
may lead to trouble, and I'm too old to have trouble with my ships now.
I've had trouble enough this night as it is--"

"That ain't the idea at all, cap'n," said Harris, entirely out of
patience. "Ye've had trouble already, and all over this, and ye'll have
more of it, and ye can't avoid it. We got some pretty fancy passengers
aboard, and I'll bet my shirt the parson and Mr. Trenhum knows; and
what's more, that parson ain't no more a parson than I be--if he's
a parson I'm a bishop. Now, them two brought a bad lot aboard with
'em--Petrak, thar in irons, and this Buckrow, and Long Jim."

"It does look queer," admitted Riggs.

"Trego had his suspicions all the time, cap'n. They got him before he
could tell ye what he guessed. Trego never liked the both of 'em. When ye
come to look this thing over in yer mind, a little at a time, it gits
plain to me. Ye see, the parson brought Long Jim and Buckrow; and Tryhum,
or whatever his name is, brung Petrak to do his part of the dirty work.

"Now, look what I'm sayin', cap'n. We got short-handed quick thar in
Manila, didn't we? I been turnin' that over in my mind, too. Somebody
cut the boatswain, didn't they? The polic