rse, I knew could not be; but as the sun got
up and his light fell on the vessel, I thought that I had never seen a
more glorious sight. She shone with the refulgent beauty of a thousand
mirrors; every foot of her deck, of her turrets, of her upper house
made a sheen of dazzling fire; the points of her decklights were as
beacons, all lurid and a-gold. So marvellous, truly, was her aspect,
that I forgot all else but it, and stood entranced, marvelling,
forgetful of myself and purpose. The flash of a knife in the air and a
fearful oath brought me to my senses to know that I was in the grasp of
the man 'Roaring John.'

"'Curse you for a small-eyed cheat! what are you doing here?' he asked,
shaking me and threatening every minute to let me feel his steel; 'what
are you doing here, you little cat of a man? Spit it out, or I'm darned
if I don't spit you; oh, I guess!'

"I should have made some answer in the rough voice I always put on in
this undertaking, but a bad mishap befel me. The best of my disguise
was the thick, bushy black hair I wore about my face. As the ruffian
went to take a firmer hold of my collar, he pulled aside a portion of
my beard, and left my chin clean-shaven beneath as naturally it was.
The intense surprise of this discovery seemed to hit him like a blow.
He stepped back with a murderous look in his eyes--a look which meant
that, if I stayed there to deal with him alone, I had not another
minute to live. But I cheated him again, and, turning on my heel, I
fled with all the speed I possessed, and got into the street with
twenty ruffians at my heels, and a hue and cry such as I hope never to
hear again.

"The escape was clever, but I reached my hotel and sat down to find
expressions equal in power to my folly. The thought that I, who was a
vulgar spy by profession, had committed a mistake worthy of a
novelist's policeman, was gall and wormwood to me. Yet I was sure that
I had cut off all hope of returning to the yard; and what information I
was to get must come by other modes. The nature of these I knew not,
but I was determined to set out upon a visit to Signor Vezzia, who was
the builder to whom the docks wherein I worked belonged. To him I came
as the pretended agent of a shipping firm in New York, with whom I had
some little acquaintance, and he gave me audience readily. He was very
willing to hear me when he learnt that I was in quest of a builder to
lay down steamers for the American trade with I