ap--beautiful goods, if
I lose by them."

Now, instead of answering this appeal as he had done the others, with
his great guffaw and banter, Captain Black turned upon Hall as he made
his request, and his face lit up with passion. I saw that his eyes gave
one fiery look, while he clenched his fists as though to strike the man
as he sat, but then he restrained himself. Yet, had I been Hall, I
would not have faced such another glance for all that adventure had
given me. It was a look which meant ill--all the ill that one man could
mean to another.

"You want to come aboard my boat, do you?" drawled the Captain, as he
softened his voice to a fine tone of sarcasm. "The dealer wants a cheap
passage; so ho! what do you say, Four-Eyes; shall we take the man
aboard?"

Four-Eyes sat up deliberately, and struck himself on the chest several
times as though to knock the sleep out of him. He seemed to be a
brawny, thick-set Irishman, gigantic in limb, and with a more honest
countenance than his fellows. He wore a short pea-jacket over the dirty
red shirt, and a great pair of carpet slippers in place of the
sea-boots which many of the others displayed. His hair was light and
curly, and his eyes, keen-looking and large, were of a grey-blue and
not unkindly-looking. I thought him a man of some deliberation, for he
stared at the Captain and at Hall before he answered the question put
to him, and then he drank a full and satisfying draught from the cup
before him. When he did give reply, it was in a rich rolling voice, a
luxurious voice which would have given ornament to the veriest
common-place.

"Oi'd take him aboard, bedad," he shouted, leaning back as though he
had spoken wisdom, and then he nodded to the Captain, and the Captain
nodded to him.

The understanding seemed complete.

"We sail at midnight, tide serving," said the Captain, as he picked up
the miniature and the other things; "you can come aboard when you
like--here, boy, lock these in the chest."

The boy put out his hand to take the things, but in his fear or his
clumsiness, he dropped the miniature, and it cracked upon the floor.
The mishap gave me my first real opportunity of judging these men in
the depth of their ruffianism. As the lad stood quivering and
terror-struck, Black turned upon him, almost foaming at the lips.

"You clumsy young cub, what d'ye mean by that?" he asked; and then, as
the boy fell on his knees to beg for mercy, casting one pitiful look