clean through. Them topsails look good enough, but they is as rotten with
the lime in them as if they was burned. No, sir, I ain't makin' no
criticism, but I burns within when I think of the trouble a few dollars
would save. Yes, sir, I burns within."

Mr. Trunnell here spat profusely to leeward and walked athwartships for
some moments without further remark. The third mate came on deck and
stood near the lee mizzen rigging, looking forward at the foam swirling
from the bends and drifting aft alongside at a rapid rate. The
phosphorus shone brilliantly in the water, and the wake of the ship was
like a path of molten metal, for the night was quite dark and the heavy
banks of clouds which had been making steadily to the westward
over-spread the sky. It was nearly time for the southwest monsoon to
shift, and with this change would likely follow a spell o' weather, as
Trunnell chose to put it. The third mate had never given an order since
he had come aboard, and I noticed Trunnell's sly wink as he glanced in
the direction of the mizzen.

"Mr. Rolling," said he, "wimmen have been my ruin. Yes, sir, wimmen have
been my ruin, an' I'm that scared o' them I can raise them afore their
topmast is above the horizon. Sink me, if that ain't one." And he leered
at the figure of the third mate, whom we knew as Mr. Bell.

"What would a woman be doing here as third mate?" I asked; for although I
had come to the same conclusion some days before, I had said nothing to
any one about it.

"That's the old man's affair," said Trunnell; "it may be his wife, or it
may be his daughter, but any one can see that the fellow's pants are
entirely too big in the heft for a man. An' his voice! Sink me, Rolling,