under a fringed sailcloth cover, and lashed with new manila line. He
eyed it with awakened interest.

"I would talk and raise trouble if it wasn't for that damned Siamese
flag. Nobody to go to--or I would make it hot for him. The fraud! Told
his chief engineer--that's another fraud for you--I had lost my nerve.
The greatest lot of ignorant fools that ever sailed the seas. No! You
can't think . . ."

"Got your money all right?" inquired his seedy acquaintance suddenly.

"Yes. Paid me off on board," raged the second mate. "'Get your breakfast
on shore,' says he."

"Mean skunk!" commented the tall man, vaguely, and passed his tongue on
his lips. "What about having a drink of some sort?"

"He struck me," hissed the second mate.

"No! Struck! You don't say?" The man in blue began to bustle about
sympathetically. "Can't possibly talk here. I want to know all about it.
Struck--eh? Let's get a fellow to carry your chest. I know a quiet place
where they have some bottled beer. . . ."

Mr. Jukes, who had been scanning the shore through a pair of glasses,
informed the chief engineer afterwards that "our late second mate hasn't
been long in finding a friend. A chap looking uncommonly like a bummer.
I saw them walk away together from the quay."

The hammering and banging of the needful repairs did not disturb