Joe's opinions coincided so fatally with my certainty that I held my
tongue.

"A dweller in--what did he call the spot, Jasper?"

"Mesopotamia."

"Well, I can't azacly say as I've seen any from them parts, but they
be all of a piece. Thicky chap warn't in the way when prettiness was
sarved out, anyhow. Of all the cut-throat chaps as ever I see--Mark
my words, 'tain't no music as he's come after."

This seemed so indisputable that I did not venture to contradict it.

"I bain't clear about thicky wreck. Likely as not 'twas the one I
seed all yesterday tacking about: and if so be as I be right, a
pretty lot of lubbers she must have had aboard. Jonathan, the
coast-guard, came down to Lizard Town this morning, and said he seed
a big vessel nigh under the cliffs toward midnight, or fancied he
seed her: but fustly Jonathan's a buffle-head, and secondly 'twas
pitch-dark; so if as he swears there weren't no blue light, 'tain't
likely any man could see, let alone a daft fule like Jonathan.
But, there, 'tain't no good for to blame he; durn Government! say I,
for settin' one man, and him a born fule, to mind seven mile o' coast
on a night when an airey mouse cou'dn' see his hand afore his face."

"What was the vessel like, Joe, that you saw?"

"East Indyman, by the looks of her; and a passel of lubberin'