ed
Enderby. "The trouble is that I don't know where to make a start--
whether to begin with what happened the night afore last, or whether
'twould be best to go back to our sailin' from London."

"Perhaps the last will be the better plan," I suggested. "If you start
at the very beginning I shall stand a better chance of understanding the
whole affair."

"Ay, ay; yes, of course you will," agreed the boatswain. "Well, it's
like this here," he began. "We left London last September--you'll find
the exact date in the log-book--with a full cargo for Cape Town, our
complement bein' thirteen, all told. Thirteen's an unlucky number,
mister; and as soon as I reckernised that our ship's company totted up
to that I _knowed_ we should have trouble, in some shape or form. But
we arrived at Cape Town all right; discharged our cargo; took in
ballast; filled up our water tanks, and got away to sea again all right;
and it wasn't until the night afore last that the trouble comed along.
Our skipper's name was Stenson, and the mate called hisself John Barber,
but I 'low it was, as likely as not, a purser's name, for I never liked
the man, and no more didn't any of us, for though he was a good enough
seaman he had a very nasty temper and was everlastin'ly naggin' the men.

"It appeared that he and the skipper was old friends--or anyway they
knowed one another pretty well, havin' been schoolfellers together; and
the story goes that some while ago this man, Barber, bein' at the time
on his beam-ends, runned foul of the skipper and begged help from him,
spinnin' a yarn about a lot of treasure that he'd found on an island
somewhere away to the east'ard, and offerin' to go shares if he'd help
Barber to get hold of the stuff. I dunno whether the yarn's true or no,
but the skipper believed it, for the upshot of it was that Cap'n
Stenson--who, I might say, was the owner of the _Yorkshire Lass_--
hustled around and got a general cargo for Cape Town, after dischargin'
which we took in ballast and sailed in search of this here treasure.
Well, everything worked all right until the night afore last, when
Barber, who was takin' the middle watch, went below and, for some reason
or another, brought the skipper up on deck. Svorenssen, who was at the
wheel, says that the pair of 'em walked fore and aft in the waist for a
goodish bit, talkin' together; and then suddenly they got to high words;
then, all in a minute, they started fightin' or strugglin