im smile and turned to Luke
Trevor.

"But I'm sure you've got no occasion," he said, "to blackguard the
Coper, for you haven't bin to visit her much."

"No, thank God, I have not," said Luke earnestly, "yet I've bin aboard
often enough to wish I had never bin there at all. It's not that,
mates, that makes me so hard on the Coper, but it was through the
accursed drink got aboard o' that floatin' grog-shop that I lost my best
friend."

"How was that, Luke? we never heerd on it."

The young fisherman paused a few moments as if unwilling to talk on a
distasteful subject.

"Well, it ain't surprisin' you didn't hear of it," he said, "because I
was in the Morgan fleet at the time, an' it's more than a year past.
The way of it was this. We was all becalmed, on a mornin' much like
this, not far off the Borkum Reef, when our skipper jumped into the
boat, ordered my friend Sterlin' an' me into it, an' went off cruisin'.
We visited one or two smacks, the skippers o' which were great chums of
our skipper, an' he got drunk there. Soon after, a stiff breeze sprang
up, an' the admiral signalled to bear away to the nor'-west'ard. We
bundled into our boat an' made for our smack, but by ill luck we had to
pass the Coper, an' nothin' would please the skipper but to go aboard
and have a glass. Sterlin' tried to prevent him, but he grew savage an'
told him to mind his own business. Well, he had more than one glass,
and by that time it was blowin' so 'ard we began to think we'd have some
trouble to get back again. At last he consented to leave, an' a
difficult job it was to get him into the boat wi' the sea that was
runnin'. When we got alongside of our smack, he laid hold of Sterlin's
oar an' told him to throw the painter aboard. My friend jumped up an'
threw the end o' the painter to one of the hands. He was just about to
lay hold o' the side an' spring over when the skipper stumbled against
him, caused him to miss his grip, an' sent him clean overboard. Poor
Sterlin' had on his long boots an' a heavy jacket. He went down like a
stone. We never saw him again."

"Did none o' you try to save him?" asked Joe quickly.

"We couldn't," replied Luke. "I made a dash at him, but he was out o'
sight by that time. He went down so quick that I can't help thinkin' he
must have struck his head on the side in goin' over."

Luke Trevor did not say, as he might have truly said, that he dived
after his friend, being himself a good sw