squatted by the cold water amidst its huddle of unpainted
outhouses, at the end of a stretch of desolate beach, the fancy
gave Morris's a touch of the sinister.

Cleggett was anxious to get the Jasper B. into seaworthy
condition as soon as possible. It occurred to him that the
employment of expert advice should be his first step, and early
the next morning he hired Captain Abernethy. That descendant of
a seafaring family, though he felt it incumbent upon him to offer
objections that had to be overcome with a great show of respect,
was really overjoyed at the commission. He left his own cottage
a mile or so away and took up his abode in the forecastle at
once. By nine o'clock that morning Cleggett had a force of
workmen renovating both cabin and forecastle, putting the cook's
galley into working order, and cleansing the decks of soil and
sand. That night Cleggett spent on the vessel, with Captain
Abernethy.

By Saturday of the same week--Cleggett had bought the vessel on
Wednesday--he was able to take up his abode in the cabin with his
books and arms about him. To his library he had added a treatise
on navigation. And, reflecting that his firearms were worthless,
considered as modern weapons, he also purchased a score of .44
caliber Colt's revolvers and automatic pistols of the latest
pattern, and a dozen magazine rifles.

He brought on board at the same time, for cook and cabin boy, a
Japanese lad, who said he was a sailor, and who called himself
Yoshahira Kuroki, and a Greek, George Stefanopolous.