every stinkin' Britisher that they comed across!"

"Ah, indeed!" I retorted sarcastically. "Very well; now we'll have a
look at those papers; after which you may take whatever steps you deem
fit."

"And supposin' I refuse?"--began the skipper. But the mate, seeing, I
imagine, that I would take no denial, seized his irate superior by the
arm and, leading him right aft, conversed with him in low tones for
nearly five minutes, at the end of which time they both came forward to
the break of the poop, and the skipper, descending the poop ladder,
remarked ungraciously:

"Waal, since nothin' less than seein' my papers 'll satisfy ye, ye'd
better come into my cabin, and I'll show 'em to yew."

Whereupon I followed him in through a passage which gave access to a
fine, airy poop cabin, plainly but comfortably fitted up, and seated
myself, uninvited, upon a cushioned locker while my companion went alone
into his state-room, returning, a minute or two later, with a large tin
box, the contents of which he laid upon the table.

"Thar they are," he exclaimed, pushing them toward me; "look at 'em as
long as yew like! I guess yew won't find nothin' wrong with 'em."

Nor did I. I inspected them with the utmost care, and ultimately came
to the conclusion that they were genuine, and that the ship was
undoubtedly the _Virginia_, and American.

"Waal," exclaimed the Yankee skipper, when I at length refolded and
handed the papers back to him, "are ye satisfied, stranger?"

I intimated that I was.

"Then git out o' here, ye darned galoot, as quick as you knows how," he
snarled, "and thank your lucky stars that I don't freshen yewr way wi' a
rope's end!" Then, suddenly changing his tune, as he followed me out on
deck and saw me glance round, he remarked:

"Purty ship, ain't she? and roomy for her size. Guess I can stow away
all of seven hundred niggers down below, and not lose more'n twenty per
cent of 'em on an ordinary average passage. And the _Preciosa_ is the
very spit of this here craft--built in the same yard, she was, and from
the same lines; there ain't a pin to choose atween 'em. Now, if yew was
only lucky enough to fall in with _her_, stranger, I guess she'd be a
prize worth havin', eh?"

"She would!" I agreed. "And, what's more, my friend, we mean to have
her, sooner or later."

"Yew don't say!" he jeered. "Waal, I guess yew'll have to fight for her
afore you git her. And yew'll have to find her afore yew