h were level
with the wharf.

"Short handed?" I suggested, reaching the deck.

"Naw, there's nobody but me an' the doctor in the after guard; we'll get
a crew aboard early in the morning, though; skipper, too, if what they
say is kerrect."

"Where's the captain?" I asked.

He looked queerly at me for a moment; then he spread his short legs
wide apart, and thrust his great hands into his trousers pockets
before speaking.

"Ain't ye never heard? Limbo, man, and a bad job, too." Here he made a
motion with his hand around his neck which I understood.

"Murder?"

He nodded.

I hesitated about staying any longer, and he spoke up.

"Got a hog-yoke, I see," he said, "Be ye a mate?"

I told him I had been.

"Well, sink me, my boy, that's just what I am aboard here, and they'll be
looking for another to match me. I saw what ye were when I first raised
ye coming along the dock, and sez I, ye're just my size, my bully."

As he could have walked under my arm when extended horizontally, I
saw he had no poor opinion of himself. However, his words conveyed a
ray of hope.

"Is the mate with the skipper?" I asked.

"The second mate is, yep; but he won't raise bail. The old man might
though, _quien sabe_? The agents will hail us to-night and settle
matters, for we're on the load line and nigh steved. We can't wait."

I reflected a moment. Here was a possible chance for a mate's berth, and
perhaps the skipper would not get bail, after all. In that case I thought
I could hardly manage better, for my fear of the little mate was not
overpowering. I was not exactly of a timid nature,--a man seldom rises to
be mate of a deep-water ship who is,--but I always dreaded a brutal
skipper on account of his absolute authority at sea, where there is no
redress. I had once been mixed up in an affair concerning the
disappearance of one, on a China trader--but no matter. The affair in
hand was tempting and I waited developments.

The little mate saw my course and laid his accordingly.

"S'pose you come around about knock-off time. The agents will be
along about then--Sauers and Co.; you know them; and I'll fix the
thing for you."

"All right," I said, and after a little conversation relating to the
merits of various ships, the _Pirate_ in particular, I left and made my
way back to my lodgings.

I notified my landlord of my proposed voyage, and he was as gracious as
could be expected, at the same time expressing some wonderment at