der Captain
Selover's directions, we commenced the task of lightening the ship.
He detailed the Nigger and Perdosa for special duty.

"I'll just see to your shore quarters," he squeaked. "You empty her."

All day long we rowed back and forth from the ship to the cove,
landing the contents of the hold. These, by good fortune, we did not
have to carry over the neck of land, for just above the gravel beach
was a wide ledge on which we could pile the stores. We ate aboard,
and so had no opportunity of seeing what Captain Selover and his men
were about, until evening. Then we discovered that they had collected
and lowered to the beach a quantity of stateroom doors from the wreck,
and had trundled the galley stove to the edge where it awaited our
assistance. We hitched a cable to it, and let it down gently. The
Nigger was immensely pleased. After some experiment he got it to draw,
and so cooked us our supper on it. After supper, Captain Selover rowed
himself back to the ship.

"Eagen," he had said, drawing me aside, "I'm going to leave you with
them. It's better that one of us--I think as owner I ought to be
aboard----"

"Of course, sir," said I, "it's the only proper place for you."

"I'm glad you think so," he rejoined, apparently relieved. "And
anyway," he cried, with a burst of feeling, "I hate the gritty feeling
of it under my feet! Solid oak's the only walking for a man."

He left me hastily, as though a trifle ashamed. I thought he seemed
depressed, even a little furtive, and yet on analysis I could discover
nothing definite on which to base such a conclusion.

It was rather a feeling of difference from the man I had known. In
my fatigue it seemed hardly worth thinking about.

The men had rolled themselves in their blankets, tired with the long
day.

Next morning Captain Selover was ashore early. He had quite recovered
his spirits, and offered me a dram of French brandy, which I refused.
We worked hard again; again the master returned at night to his
vessel, this time without a word to any of us; again the men, drugged
by toil, turned in early and slept like the dead.

We became entangled in a mesh of days like these, during which things
were accomplished, but in which was no space for anything but the
tasks imposed upon us. The men for the most part had little to say.

"Por Dios, eet is too mooch work!" sighed Perdosa once.

"Why don't you kick to the Old Man, then?" sneered Thrackles.

The silence t