d to know named Dibbs," said
the skipper. "Keeps a boarding-house for sailors. Wonderful sharp little
chap he is. Needles ain't nothing to him. There's heaps of needles,
but only one Dibbs. He's going to make old Berrow's chaps as drunk as
lords."

"Does he know 'em?" inquired the mate.

"He knows where to find 'em," said the other. "I told him they'd either
be in the 'Duke's Head' or the 'Town o' Berwick.' But he'd find 'em
wherever they was. Ah, even if they was in a coffee pallis, I b'leeve
that man 'ud find 'em."

"They're steady chaps," objected the mate, but in a weak fashion, being
somewhat staggered by this tribute to Mr. Dibbs' remarkable powers.

"My lad," said the skipper, "it's Dibbs' business to mix sailors'
liquors so's they don't know whether they're standing on their heads
or their heels. He's the most wonderful mixer in Christendom; takes a
reg'lar pride in it. Many a sailorman has got up a ship's side, thinking
it was stairs, and gone off half acrost the world instead of going to
bed, through him."

"We'll have a easy job of it, then," said the mate. "I b'leeve we could
ha' managed it without that, though. 'Tain't quite what you'd call
sport, is it?"

"There's nothing like making sure of a thing," said the skipper
placidly. "What time's our chaps coming aboard?"

"Ten thirty, the latest," replied the mate. "Old Sam's with 'em, so
they'll be all right."

"I'll turn in for a couple of hours," said the skipper, going towards
his berth. "Lord! I'd give something to see old Berrow's face as his
chaps come up the side."

"P'raps they won't git as far as that," remarked the mate.

"Oh, yes they will," said the skipper. "Dibbs is going to see to that.
I don't want any chance of the race being scratched. Turn me out in a
couple of hours."

He closed the door behind him, and the mate, having stuffed his clay
with the coarse tobacco, took some pink note-paper with scalloped edges
from his drawer, and, placing the paper at his right side, and squaring
his shoulders, began some private correspondence.

For some time he smoked and wrote in silence, until the increasing
darkness warned him to finish his task. He signed the note, and, having
put a few marks of a tender nature below his signature, sealed it ready
for the post, and sat with half-closed eyes, finishing his pipe. Then
his head nodded, and, placing his arms on the table, he too slept.

It seemed but a minute since he had closed his eyes wh