a pantry man in a Suezer."

"But this isn't any tea-party to which the crew are invited."

"Huh! Don' yo' go fo' to fool yo' self."

"Oh, fiddlesticks!" said Trask. "What are you trying to do? Make me
afraid of everybody in the schooner?"

Doc scratched his woolly head and rolled his eyes.

"I ain't got nothin' mo' fo' to say," he declared, with an air of
mystery.

Doc was getting a trifle too chummy to suit Trask, and he thought
it high time to bring the discussion to a close. While he felt Doc
might be valuable as a friend and an ally, the garrulous steward
might prove to be dangerous as a gossip. Trask feared that he had
made a mistake by discussing the ship's affairs with him, so he
gave the black man a generous tip and dismissed him with a caution
against repeating anything that had been said.

"If yo' go to need any advice, Mr. Trask, jes' yo' call on me," he
whispered as he went out. "I don't let nothin' what might come in
handy slip by me."

"Thanks," said Trask, who realized that this was a direct offer to
turn spy against Captain Jarrow and Peth. He did not care to enter
into any sort of an arrangement yet felt that it would be wise to
retain friendly relations with the steward.

"If I pick up anything, Mr. Trask, I'll put a bug in yo' ear."

"All right," said Trask. "But I don't favour your spying on anybody
for my sake. You're merely to let me know in case anything goes on
that I should know, which relates to the safety of all hands."

"Oh, I ain' go'n to do no snoopin'," said Doc, with one of his
peculiar chuckles. "But I looks fer carryin's on."

"I don't want you gossiping," said Trask. Doc was promising to
become something of a nuisance.

"Yassir," said the steward, and went away to the galley.

Trask now gave his complete attention to emptying the bag which
should have contained the pistol. He made a careful search. But the
pistol was gone and he was sure he had packed it that morning at
the hotel, together with two boxes of ammunition.

So he ransacked every possible place where the pistol could be
misplaced among his effects. But after going through two smaller
bags, and shaking out every bit of clothing, even to folding up the
sheets and blankets on both bunks, he was sure the pistol was gone.

So far as Trask knew, the only person besides Doc Bird to cross the
threshold of his room was Peth. But the mate had been there only a
few minutes. Whoever the thief was, he apparently had