ith imprecations in our ears, and particularly the promises
of the pock-marked rebel, who announced the certainty of our meeting
again.

Of course we laughed at such threats, but I confess that, as I went down
to my cabin and picked up the "manifesto," which had been forgotten in
all the turmoil, I could not escape a certain thrill as I read the
signature--for it was: "Henry P. Tobias, Jr."

CHAPTER VI

_The Incident of the Captain._

As we hoisted the sails and the sun came up in all his glory, the smell
of Tom's coffee seemed to my prosaic mind the best of all in that
beautiful world. I said: "Let's give 'em a song, boys,--to cheer 'em up.
How about 'Delia gone!'?"

At this suggestion even the imperturbability of the captain broke into a
smile. He was a man hard to move, but this suggestion seemed to tickle
him.

_Some gave a nickel, some gave a dime;
I never gave no red cent--
She was no girl of mine.
Delia gone! Delia gone!_

seemed to throw him into convulsions, and I took the helm awhile to give
him a chance to recover. The exquisiteness of its appeal to the
scoundrels, so securely trussed there on the island we were swiftly
leaving behind, seemed to get him to such a degree that I was almost
afraid that he might die of laughing, as has been heard of. He laughed
as only a negro can laugh, and he kept it going so infectiously that Tom
and I got started, just watching him. Even Sailor caught the infection,
his big tongue shaking his jaws with the huge joke of it.

I don't know what they thought had happened to us, the three poor devils
there on the jagged coral rock. At all events the laughter did us good
by relieving the tension of our feelings, and when at last we had
recovered and the captain was at the wheel again, once more sober as a
judge, you couldn't have believed such an outbreak possible of him.

The _Maggie Darling_ was sailing so fast that it hardly seemed necessary
to trouble to call at Harbour Island; but, then, the wind might go down,
our adventure was far from over, and gasolene might at any moment be a
prime necessity. So we kept her going, with her beautiful sails filled
out against the bluest sky you can dream of, and the ripple singing at
her bow--the loveliest sight and sound in the world for a man who loves
boats and the sea.

"Is there anything like it, Tom?" I asked. "Do you read your Bible? You
should; it's the greatest book in the world.