of days and one night he told me a strange
story.

"It seems that his last trip had been on a four-master sailing out of
Halifax. She had been rather short-handed, and the skipper had been
worrying about where he could get enough sailors to work his craft.

"While he was casting around, he was surprised and glad one day to have
half a dozen burly fellows come aboard and offer to sign articles for
the voyage. They told a story of just having finished a trip on a tramp
from Liverpool, and as they were all messmates they were anxious to get
a berth together on the same ship.

"The captain didn't ask any question--no captain ever does when he
happens to be short-handed--and he signed the men on at once. That very
night the ship hove her anchor and put out to sea.

"They were to go around Cape Horn, and it would be at least two years
and maybe more before they would see home again.

"Tom said that the men were good, smart sailors and no mistake. But
there was something queer about them. They didn't mix much with the
others of the crew. They would gather together in a little knot when
they were off duty and talk in whispers. It seemed as though some secret
held them together.

"The man who seemed to be most influential among them was a big
Portuguese named Manuel. The others seemed to stand in fear of him. He
didn't seem like a common sailor, but acted as if he were used to giving
orders instead of obeying them.

"Tom said that at last he got rather chummy with one of them, named
Dick, and used to have long talks with him. From what the man let slip,
Tom learned that he had passed most of his life in the coastwise trade,
and though he didn't say right out that he had been a smuggler, Tom
guessed as much.

"One night Dick, while reefing sails in a blow, had a bad fall from
aloft. He was a very sick man for a while, and the skipper didn't know
whether he'd pull through or not. The captain detailed Tom to look after
him, and in that way they got more confidential than ever.

"One day Dick had a turn for the worse and thought he was going to die.
He was dreadfully scared and after a good deal of beating around the
bush, told Tom that he wanted to get something off his mind. He didn't
want to die, he said, without having made a clean breast of it.

"Then he went on to say that he had been a seaman on board a coastwise
trader called the _Ranger_ that hailed from some Canadian port not
far from Halifax. She did a good de