what you might call the cabinet-making part of the job. There's a
young carpenter lives up the court here--a cleverish fellow.
I got him to help me over the niceties, you understand; but on my
lines, lad. Climb up and cast your eye over the well I've put in
her. That's for the treasure; and there'll be side-lockers round the
stern-sheets, and a locker forward big enough to hold a man.
The fellow don't guess their meanin', an' I don't let him guess.
He thinks they're for air-compartments, to keep her buoyant; says
she'll need more ballast than I've allowed her, and wants to know
what sense there is in buildin' a boat so floatey. _We'll_ ballast
her, Brooks; all in good time. We'll ship her aboard the Kingston
packet, bein' of a size that she'll carry comfortable as deck-cargo;
and soon as we get to Kingstown we'll--"

"Avast there, cap'n!" interrupted a cheerful voice; and I glanced up,
to see a sandy-haired youth with an extremely good-natured face
nodding at us across the coping of the party-wall. "Avast there!
Busy with visitors, eh? No? Well, I've been thinkin' it over, and
I'll take sixpence an hour."

"I don't give a ha'penny over fippence," answered Captain Coffin,
patently taken aback by the interruption.

"Fivepence, then, as a pro-temporary accommodation," said the youth,
and, throwing a leg over the wall, heaved himself over and into the
back yard. "But it's taking advantage of me; and you know that if I
weren't in love and in a hurry it wouldn't happen."

"You can take fippence, or go to the devil!" said Captain Coffin.
"By the way, Brooks, this is my assistant, Mr. George Goodfellow."