l to a dry-lander, and
maybe he will believe you; but you cannot so easily pull the wool over
the eyes of Captain Benny Willitts. And what, if I may be so bold as
for to ask you, was the reason for their attacking so harmless a man as
you proclaim yourself to be?"

"That I know not," cried Jonathan; "but I am entirely willing to tell
thee all the circumstances. Thou must know that I am a member of the
Society of Friends. This day I landed here in Kingston, and met a
young woman of very comely appearance, who intrusted me with this
little ivory ball, which she requested me to keep for her a few days.
The sight of this ball--in which I can detect nothing that could be
likely to arouse any feelings of violence--appears to have driven these
two men entirely mad, so that they instantly made the most ferocious
and murderous assault upon me. See! wouldst thou have believed that so
small a thing as this would have caused so much trouble?" And as he
spoke he held up to the gaze of the other the cause of the double
tragedy that had befallen. But no sooner had Captain Willitts's eyes
lighted upon the ball than the most singular change passed over his
countenance. The color appeared to grow dull and yellow in his ruddy
cheeks, his fat lips dropped apart, and his eyes stared with a fixed
and glassy glare. He arose to his feet and, still with the expression
of astonishment and wonder upon his face, gazed first at our hero and
then at the ivory ball in his hands, as though he were deprived both of
reason and of speech. At last, as our hero slipped the trifle back in
his pocket again, the mariner slowly recovered himself, though with a
prodigious effort, and drew a deep and profound breath as to the very
bottom of his lungs. He wiped, with the corner of his black silk
cravat, his brow, upon which the sweat appeared to have gathered.
"Well, messmate," says he, at last, with a sudden change of voice, "you
have, indeed, had a most wonderful adventure." Then with another deep
breath: "Well, by the blood! I may tell you plainly that I am no poor
hand at the reading of faces. Well, I think you to be honest, and I am
inclined to believe every word you tell me. By the blood! I am
prodigiously sorry for you, and am inclined to help you out of your
scrape.

"The first thing to do," he continued, "is to get rid of these two dead
men, and that is an affair I believe we shall have no trouble in
handling. One of them we will wrap u