ny
altercation, so I left the matter there; but, being determined to probe
the mystery to the very bottom, I returned in a good disguise of a
common English seaman on the following evening, and again entered the
dockyard. The same man was watching, but he had no suspicion of me.

"'Any job going?' I asked, and the question seemed to interest him.

"'I reckon that depends on the man,' he replied, sticking his hands
deep into his pockets, and squirting his filthy tobacco all over the
timber about. 'What's a little wizen chap like you good for, except to
get yer neck broken?'

"'All in my line,' I answered jauntily, having fixed my plan; 'I'm
starving amongst these cursed cut-throats here, and I'm ready for
anything.'

"'Starving, are you! Then blarm me if you shan't earn your supper.
D'y'see that four feet of bullock's fat and nigger working at them iron
pins in the far corner?'--he pointed to a thick-set, dark and burly
seaman working in the way he had described--'go and stick yer knife in
him, and I'm good for a bottle--two, if you like, you darned little
shootin' rat of a man'; and he clutched me with his great paw and shook
me until my teeth chattered again. But his look was full of meaning,
and I believe that he wished every word that he said.

"'Stick your knife into the man yourself,' I replied, when I was free
of him, 'you great Yankee lubber--for another word I'd give you a taste
of mine now.'

"He looked at me as I stood making this poor mock of a threat, and
laughed till he rang up the hill-sides. Then he said--

"'You're my sort; I reckon I know your flag. Out with it, and we'll
pour liquor on it, I guess; for there ain't no foolin' you--no, by
thunder! You're just a daisy of a man, you are; so come along and let
the nigger be. As for hurtin' of 'im--why, so help me blazes, he's my
pard, he is, and I love him like my own little brother what died of
lead-poisonin' down Sint Louis way. You come along, you little cuss,
and see if I don't make you dance--oh, I reckon!'

"I take these words from my note-book, and write them out for you, to
give you some idea of the class of man I met with first on this
adventure. More of his nice language I do not intend to trouble you
with; but will say that I drank with him, and later on with his
companions, about as fine a dozen of self-stamped rascals as ever I
wish to see. Next day, I came again to the dockyard, for the
conversation of the previous evening had convin