way of the schooner. It was near evening when the
hatch was battened down and a small tug snaked them out of the dock
and from among the greater shipping, and gave them a whistled
blessing in midstream.

All hands and the skipper tailed on to the sheets and got her canvas
spread. Then the skipper went below to the galley and prepared
supper. Tunis Latham could be no stickler for quarter-deck etiquette
on this voyage, that was sure.

But although the hands growled, and even Horry looked sour, Tunis
seemed strangely excited; indeed, he looked less woebegone than he
had for many a day. Something seemed to have given him a new zest in
life. He even spoke to the hands cheerfully, and they were a trio of
as surly dogs as ever quarreled with their food and a ship's
officers.

"I'll lay up at the cove until I get a decent crew this time, if I
lose all my existing contracts," Tunis said to Zebedee. "I'll find a
bunch of men who are not afraid of their shadows. Huh! Hoodooed, is
she? I'll show 'em that she can sail, even if Davy Jones himself
sits on her bowsprit!"

There was wind enough, in all good conscience. They discovered that
before they were out of the bay. It had shifted into the northeast,
and the _Seamew_ went roaring away on her course under reefed
canvas, heeling over to it like a racing yacht.

But the long tacks to seaward which the gale enforced made it
impossible for the schooner to beat back to Hollis where the first
of her freight must be discharged until after breakfast the next
morning. By that time the three foremast hands who had been obliged
to work double watches were fairly stewing in their own rage.

Tunis had to see his consignees while the freight was being
discharged; when he got back to the wharf there was nobody aboard
the schooner save Horry and Zebedee. The latter had a broken oar in
his hand and he and the ancient seaman seemed to be in a condition
of utter amazement.

"What's to do now?" demanded the skipper.

"They've gone, Cap'n Latham," stammered Zebedee. "Say they won't put
foot on the _Seamew's_ deck again. That--that confounded 'Rion--"

"What's the matter with Orion now?" exclaimed Tunis. "I hoped I was
well rid of him. Has he turned up here at Hollis?"

"Look at this," said Zebedee, shaking the broken oar. "Here's what
it seems 'Rion found in the hold two trips back. So those fellows
say. He left it with 'em. And they say the schooner is a murder ship
and they won't try to