"In the first instance, yes."

"Very clever, that!"

"And then that they had not been torn up--_they had been cut_."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, most wise and learned brother, that is all; and I leave you to
draw the inferences."

"I may add," observed the sailor, "that, as we were steering for the
plantation, myself on the starboard and Jack on the larboard--"

"On the what?"

"Master Jack on the left and myself on the right."

"That I pitched right over these canes without ever noticing them."

"Which is not much to be wondered at; Willis has been so long at sea
that he has no confidence in the solidity of the land; during our
cruise, he kept a look-out after the wind, expecting, I suppose, that
it would perform some of the wonderful things you spoke of this
morning."

"After all," observed Becker, "this is another link in the chain of
evidence, and I congratulate Jack on his sagacity in tracing it."

"But the affair is as much a mystery as ever."