k it up for fun. There
ain't no more a Devil's Admiral than there is a _Flying Dutchman_."

"Wal, didn't I see the _Flying Dutchman_ off the cape with my own eyes
when I was second in the brig _Peerless_? Ye can't tell me thar ain't no
_Flying Dutchman_, and ye can't make me believe thar ain't no Devil's
Admiral--I've been told some things about both of 'em, and dang me for a
blue-nose fisherman if I don't believe in 'em both!"

"Who is your Devil's Admiral aboard here, then?"

"The parson."

"You're full of hashish! You been bothered lately with your head, Mr.
Harris?"

"That's all right, cap'n. When a man looks overside and says ten knots
and better, and the log says ten knots and a shade, he ain't no landsman.
He spits to looward like a commodore, that parson, and I've had my
suspicions right along."

"All buncombe. You been readin' too many Manila newspapers."

"Yes, and I see a few things on deck, too, that ain't got nothin' to do
with newspapers. Petrak, Buckrow, and the long lime-juicer was all pretty
thick when no one was lookin' at 'em. And they don't let on to know each
other, neither. Askin' one another their names when I was standin' by,
and soon as my back was turned thick as flies at a molasses-barrel,
sneakin' round and whisperin'.

"'Who's the red chap?' asks Long Jim from Buckrow, when he knows I can
hear.

"'Says he's out of a collier,' says Buckrow, speakin' loud a purpose so I
can hear.

"The next I know, cap'n, Reddy was tellin' Long Jim that Buckrow never
paid him that two bob for a round of drinks in the Flagship Bar before
the cuttin'. Don't that sound funny? Then when Petrak takes the wheel I
asks him if he knows Long Jim, and he says not afore he come aboard, and
Buckrow says the same.

"They all lied; and ye remember how Buckrow helped Petrak with a knife
when he was in a tight jam thar at the door. I put two and two together,
and I'm here, Ezra Harris, your mate, to tell ye that they make four, and
ye can't git away from it--and what's more, this Trenjum is in with the
parson and the other three. Devil's Admiral or no, it don't look nice to
me."

"Do you think Buckrow and the other two know about this, Mr. Harris?"

"It ain't clear to me, so far as that goes, but Trenjum and the parson
do. I looks at it this way--they knowed ye didn't know, and that Trego
might tell ye; so they ups and lets a knife into him before he can tell,
and then we're up in the air. If I hadn't found i