told you where she's bound?"

"He couldn't tell me, for he didn't know; the whole crew was shipped
in that way. Where is he going? He won't know till he gets there."

"Nor yet if they are going to Davy Jones's locker," said one scoffer,
"as it seems to me they are."

"But then, their pay," continued the friend of Clifton
enthusiastically,--"their pay! it's five times what a sailor usually
gets. If it had not been for that, Richard Shandon would not have got
a man. A strangely shaped boat, going no one knows where, and as if it
never intended coming back! As for me, I should not have cared to ship
in her."

"Whether you would or not," answered Mr. Cornhill, "you could never
have shipped in the _Forward_."

"Why not?"

"Because you would not have answered the conditions. I heard that
married men were not taken. Now you belong to that class. So you need
not say what you would or would not do, since it's all breath thrown
away."

The sailor who was thus snubbed burst out laughing, as did his
companions, showing in this way that Mr. Cornhill's remarks were true.

"There's nothing but boldness about the ship," continued Cornhill,
well pleased with himself. "The _Forward_,--forward to what? Without
saying that nobody knows who her captain is."

"O, yes, they do!" said a young sailor, evidently a green-hand.

[Illustration]

"What! They do know?"

"Of course."

"My young friend," said Cornhill, "do you think Shandon is the captain
of the _Forward_?"

"Why--" answered the boy.

"Shandon is only the mate, nothing else; he's a good and brave sailor,
an old whaler, a good fellow, able to take command, but he's not the
captain; he's no more captain than you or I. And who, under God, is
going to have charge of the ship, he does not know in the least. At
the proper time the captain will come aboard, I don't know how, and I
don't know where; for Richard Shandon didn't tell me, nor has he leave
to tell me in what direction he was first to sail."

"Still, Mr. Cornhill," said the young sailor, "I can tell you that
there's some one on board, some one who was spoken of in the letter in
which Mr. Shandon was offered the place of mate."

"What!" answered Cornhill, "do you mean to tell me that the _Forward_
has a captain on board?"

"Yes, Mr. Cornhill."

"You tell me that?"

"Certainly, for I heard it from Johnson, the boatswain."

"Boatswain Johnson?"

"Yes, he told me himself."

"Johnson told you?"

"Not o