himself. But he only tossed his head disdainfully. A pretty dodge
indeed: boarding a strange ship with breakfast in two baskets for
all hands and calmly inviting himself to the captain's table!
Never heard of anything so crafty and so impudent in his life.

I found myself defending Jacobus's unusual methods.

"He's the brother of one of the wealthiest merchants in the port."
The mate's eyes fairly snapped green sparks.

"His grand brother hasn't spoken to him for eighteen or twenty
years," he declared triumphantly. "So there!"

"I know all about that," I interrupted loftily.

"Do you sir? H'm!" His mind was still running on the ethics of
commercial competition. "I don't like to see your good nature
taken advantage of. He's bribed that steward of ours with a five-
rupee note to let him come down--or ten for that matter. He don't
care. He will shove that and more into the bill presently."

"Is that one of the tales you have heard ashore?" I asked.

He assured me that his own sense could tell him that much. No;
what he had heard on shore was that no respectable person in the
whole town would come near Jacobus. He lived in a large old-
fashioned house in one of the quiet streets with a big garden.
After telling me this Burns put on a mysterious air. "He keeps a
girl shut up there who, they say--"