er fiercely.

"Too much dry food, sir," said Sam, after due deliberation.

"Too much what?" bellowed the skipper.

"Too much dry food," repeated Sam firmly. "A parrot--a grey
parrot--wants plenty o' sop. If it don't get it, it moults."

"It's had too much CAT" said the skipper fiercely, "and you know it, and
overboard it goes."

"I don't believe it was the cat, sir," interposed the other man; "it's
too soft-hearted to do a thing like that."

"You can shut your jaw," said the skipper, reddening. "Who asked you to
come down here at all?"

"Nobody saw the cat do it," urged the mate.

The skipper said nothing, but, stooping down, picked up a tail feather
from the floor, and laid it on the table. He then went on deck, followed
by the others, and began calling, in seductive tones, for the cat.
No reply forth coming from the sagacious animal, which had gone into
hiding, he turned to Sam, and bade him call it.

"No, sir, I won't 'ave no 'and in it," said the old man. "Putting aside
my liking for the animal, _I'M_ not going to 'ave anything to do with
the killing of a black cat."

"Rubbish!" said the skipper.

"Very good, sir," said Sam, shrugging his shoulders, "you know best, o'
course. You're eddicated and I'm not, an' p'raps you can afford to make
a laugh o' such things. I knew one man who killed a black cat an' he
went mad. There's something very pecooliar about that cat o' ours."

"It knows more than we do," said one of the crew, shaking his head.
"That time you--I mean we--ran the smack down, that cat was expecting of
it 'ours before. It was like a wild thing."

"Look at the weather we've 'ad--look at the trips we've made since he's
been aboard," said the old man. "Tell me it's chance if you like, but I
KNOW better."

The skipper hesitated. He was a superstitious man even for a sailor,
and his weakness was so well known that he had become a sympathetic
receptacle for every ghost story which, by reason of its crudeness or
lack of corroboration, had been rejected by other experts. He was a
perfect reference library for omens, and his interpretations of dreams
had gained for him a widespread reputation.

"That's all nonsense," he said, pausing uneasily; "still, I only want to
be just. There's nothing vindictive about me, and I'll have no hand
in it myself. Joe, just tie a lump of coal to that cat and heave it
overboard."

"Not me," said the cook, following Sam's lead, and working up a shudder.
"Not for f