subject, though no one had spoken:

"What started you talkin' about the grave, Perez? Was it them clam
fritters of Jerry's?"

"No," answered the ex-skipper of the Flying Duck, pulling at his
grizzled scrap of throat whisker and looking rather shamefaced. "You
see, M'lissy Busteed dropped in a few minutes this mornin' while you
fellers was out and--"

Both Captain Eri and Captain Jerry set up a hilarious shout.

"Haw! haw!" roared the former, slapping his knee. "I wouldn't be so
fascinatin' as you be for no money, Perez. She'll have you yit; you
can't git away! But say, I don't wonder you got to thinkin' 'bout the
grave. Ten minutes of M'lissy gits me thinkin' of things way t'other
side of that!"

"Aw, belay there, Eri" protested Captain Perez testily. "'Twan't my
fault. I didn't see her comin' or I'd have got out of sight. She was
cruisin' 'round the way she always does with a cargo of gabble, and, she
put in here to unload. Talk! I never heard a woman talk the way she can!
She'd be a good one to have on board in a calm. Git her talkin' abaft
the mains'l and we'd have a twenty-knot breeze in a shake."

"What was it this time?" asked Captain Jerry.

"Oh, a little of everything. She begun about the 'beautiful' sermon that
Mr. Perley preached at the last 'Come-Outers'' meetin'. That was what
started me thinkin' about the grave, I guess. Then she pitched into