no figuring on what they will
do."

"I can see you are bent on making them do something that will raise
trouble," Newbegin said, shaking his head once more.

"What do you expect? You know the _Seamew_ is hoodooed. Huh!
_Seamew_! That ain't no more her rightful name than it is mine."

"I wouldn't say that."

"I would!" snapped 'Rion. "She's the _Marlin B._, out o' Salem. No
matter what he says, or anybody else. She's the murder ship. If he
sailed her over that place outside o' Salem Harbor where those poor
fellows was drowned, they'd rise again and curse the schooner and
all aboard her."

The old man shuddered. He turned his face away and spat reflectively
over the rail. The tug of the steering chains to starboard was even
then thrilling the cords of his hands and arms with an almost
electric shock. 'Rion watched him slyly. He knew the impression he
was making on the old man's superstitious mind. He played upon it as
he did upon the childish minds of some of the Portygee seamen.

So Captain Tunis Latham did not arrive in Boston in a very calm
frame of mind. Although he had no words with 'Rion, and really no
trouble with the crew in general, he felt that trouble was brewing.
And the worst of it was, it was trouble which he did not know how to
avert.

It was not so easy to fill the empty berth in the forecastle, even
from the offscourings of the docks. It was a time when dock labor
was at a premium. And short voyages never did interest good
sailormen. In addition, knowing that the _Seamew_ sailed from her
home port, decent seafarers wanted to know what was the matter with
her that the captain could not fill his forecastle at that end.

These men wondered about Captain Latham, too. They judged that
infirmities of temper must be the reason his men did not stay with
the schooner. He was, perhaps, a driver--too quick with his fist or
the toe of his boot. Questions along this line were bound to breed
answers--and answers from those members of the _Seamew's_ crew who
were not friendly to the skipper.

In some little den off Commercial Street 'Rion Latham had
forgathered with certain dock loiterers, and, after that, word went
to and fro that the _Seamew_ was haunted. If she ever sailed off
Great Misery Island, the crew of a run-under Salem fishing smack
would rise up to curse the schooner's company. And that curse would
follow those who sailed aboard her--either for'ard or in the
afterguard--for all time. In conseque