red, which may raise the
question of piracy."

Just an hour later, when Mr. Job had returned to shore in the devil's
own temper to call a hasty meeting of his shareholders--and Captain
Hewitt along with him, with his tail between his Legs--Captain Cornelisz
raised the trap of the lazarette.

"I'm thinking a little fresh air's no more than you deserve," said he.

"But where are we, in this world?" asked Jacka.

"So well as I can learn, 'tis a place called Polperro."

Jacka chuckled. "Seen anything of a party called Job?"

"He's to bring me six hundred pounds before morning," answered the
Dutchman, lighting his pipe. "And see here--I'm a fair-dealin' man, and
I own I owe you a good twenty of it. You shall have it when you leave
the ship, and I'll chance making it right with the owners."

"Very good of you, to be sure," allowed Jacka.

"But that isn't all. I owe you something on my own account, and if
there's any small favour I can do you, in reason--"

"Well, since you put it so friendly, I'd like an hour or so ashore."

"Ashore? What, to-night?"

"It's my home, you see," Jacka explained; "and my old woman lives
there."

"You don't say so? Well, you shall be put ashore as soon as you please.
Anything else?"

"I see'd a very pretty teapot and sugar basin in your cabin yestiddy.
I don't know if you set any particular store by them; but if you don't,
my old woman's terrible fond of china, and you can deduct it out of the
twenty pounds, it you like."

"Shouldn't think of it," says Captain Cornelisz; "they're best Nankin,
and they're yours. Anything else?"

"Well, if I might ask the loan of a pair of your breeches till
to-morrow. They seem to me a bit fuller in the seat than mine, and let
alone being handy to carry the china in, they'll be a kind of disguise.
For, to tell the truth, I don't want to be seen in Polperro streets to
be mixed up with this business, and my legs be so bandy that in any
ordinary small clothes there's no mistaking me, even in the dark."

So the _Van der Werf's_ boat landed Jacka that night in pitch darkness
half a mile west of the haven, where a ridge of rock gives shelter from
the easterly swell. And just half an hour later, as Mary Polly turned
in her sleep, she heard a stone trickle down the cliff at the back of
the cottage and drop thud! into the yard under her window. She sat bolt
upright in bed. "There's some villain of a thief after my Minorca's
eggs," said she