ed Fritz.

"Yes, it puts me in mind of your remark about the air, which, you
said, consists of--let me see--"

"Oxygen and hydrogen."

"Just so; but the air a sailor breathes when he is at home consists
almost entirely of tobacco smoke. At last, I could make out twenty or
thirty rough-looking fellows seated on each side of a long deal table
covered with bottles, glasses, and pipes. Dan Hooligan, the landlord,
sat at the top--a fit president for such an assembly. He was partly a
smuggler, partly a publican, and wholly a sinner. I should say that
the liquor consumed at that table did not much good to the revenue.
How Dan contrived to escape the laws, was a mystery perhaps best known
to the police."

"So you are a pal of One-eyed Dick's, are you?' said he.

"'Rather,' said I, adopting the slang of the place.

"'Well,' said he, 'Dick has been a good customer of mine, and all his
pals are welcome at the 'Molly.' I have not seen him lately,
however--how goes it with him now?'

"'Right as a trivet,' said I, 'and making lots of rhino.'

"'Glad to hear it; and what latitude does he hail in now?'

"'That,' said I, 'is private and confidential.'

"'Oh,' said he, 'there are no outsiders here, we are all sworn friends
of Dick's, every mother's son of us.'

"'Then,' said I, 'Dick is off the Cove in the schooner _Nancy_, of
Brest,'"

"Holloa, Willis," cried Jack, "there was a fib!"

"Well, I told you to look out for something of that sort when I
began."

"'What!' cried the landlord, 'Dick in a schooner off the Irish coast?'

"'Yes,' said I; 'and aboard that schooner there is as tight a cargo of
brandy and tobacco as ever you set eyes upon.'

"Here the landlord pricked up his ears, and the rest of the company
began to listen attentively. The fellow that sat next me coolly told
me that both he and Dick had been lagged for horse-stealing, and had
subsequently broken out of prison and escaped. He further told me that
most of the gentlemen present had been all, one way or another, mixed
up with Dick's doings; from which I concluded they were a rare parcel
of scamps, and resolved, within myself, to try and bag the whole
squad. They were all stout fellows enough, most of them seamen. I
thought they might be able to 'do the State some service,' and
determined to convert them into honest men, if I could.'

"'Dick cannot come ashore,' said I; 'some one of his old pals here has
peached, and there is a warrant out against hi