same as you and me. Whereby I allow it must come in time, though my
head don't seem to get no grip on it."

Captain Coffin stared for a moment at a sheet of paper on which he
had been scribbling figures, and passed it over to me, with a sigh.

"There! What d'you make of it?"

At a glance I saw that nothing could be made of it. The figures
crossed one another, and ran askew; here and there they trailed off
into mere illegibility. In the left-hand bottom corner I saw a 3 set
under a 10, and beneath it the result--17--underlined, which, as a
sum, left much to be desired, whether you took it in addition,
subtraction, multiplication, or division.

"And yet," he went on plaintively, "there's hundreds can do it--even
ord'nary men."

He reached out a hand and gripped me by the elbow; and again his
brandy-laden breath sickened me as he drew me close.

"S'pose, now, _you_ was to do this for me? You _could_, you know.
And there's money in it--lashin's o' money!"

He winked at me, glanced around the room, and with an indescribable
air of slyness dived a hand into his breast-pocket.

"It's here," he nodded, drawing out a small parcel wrapped about in
what at first glance appeared to me an oilskin bag, tied about the
neck with a tarry string. "Here. And enough to set you an' me up