' said Potter. 'I drained the Loch to
get him. Fortunately,' he added, 'it was at the expense of the Trust.'

After a few words of commonplace but heartfelt condolence, Logan
descended the companion, and followed Bude and Captain Funkal into the
cabin of that officer. The captain placed refreshments on the table.

'Now, gentlemen,' he said, 'you have seen the least riled of my
professors, and you can guess what the rest are like. Professor Rustler
is weeping in his cabin over a shrivelled old mummy. "Never will he
speak again," says he, and I am bound to say that I _hev_ heard the
critter discourse once. The mummy let some awful yells out of him when
the fire-bugs came aboard.'

'Yes, we heard a human cry,' said Bude.

'I had thought the talk was managed with a concealed gramophone,' said
the captain, 'but it wasn't. The Bunyip from Central Australia has gone
to his long home. That was Professor Wilkinson's pet. There is nothing
left alive out of the lot but the natives that Professor Jenkins of
England brought in irons from Cagayan Sulu. I reckon them two niggers
are somehow at the bottom of the whole ruction.'

'Indeed, and why?' asked Bude.

'Why, sir--I am addressing Professor Jones Harvey?'

Bude bowed. 'Harvey, captain, but not professor--simple amateur seaman
and explorer.'

'Sir, your hand,' said the captain. 'Your friend is not a professor?'

'Not I,' said Logan, smiling.

The captain solemnly shook hands. 'Gentlemen, you have sand,' he said, a
supreme tribute of respect. 'Well, about these two natives. I never
liked taking them aboard. They are, in consequence of the triumph of our
arms, American subjects, natives of the conquered Philippines. I am no
lawyer, and they may be citizens, they may have votes. They are
entitled, anyway, to the protection of the Flag, and I would have entered
them as steerage passengers. But that Professor Jenkins (and the other
professors agreed) would have it that they came under the head of
scientific exhibits. And they did allow that the critters were highly
dangerous. I guess they were right.'

'Why, what could they do?'

'Well, gentlemen, I heard stories on shore that I took no stock in. I am
not a superstitious man, but they allowed that these darkeys are not of a
common tribe, but what the papers call "highly developed mediums." And I
guess they are at the bottom of the stramash.'

'Captain Funkal, may I be frank with you?' asked Bude.