The latter was a handsome, rather burly fellow of about thirty, a
man with a kindling eye and a habit of boasting of his ancestors.

Among them, he declared, was Leonidas, the hero of Thermopylae.
George admitted he was not a sailor, but professed a willingness
to learn, and looked so capable, as he squared his bulky
shoulders and twisted his fine black mustache, that Cleggett
engaged him, taking him immediately from the dairy lunch room in
which he had been employed. George's idea was to work his way
back to Greece, he said, on the Jasper B. If she did not sail
for Greece for some time, George was willing to wait; he was
patient; sometime, no doubt, she would touch the shores of
Greece.

The hold of the Jasper B. Cleggett and Captain Abernethy found to
be in a chaotic state. Casks, barrels, empty bottles by the
hundred, ruins of benches, tables, chairs, old nondescript pieces
of planking, broken crates and boxes, were flung together there
in moldering confusion. It was evident that after the scheme of
using the Jasper B.'s hulk as one of the attractions of a
pleasure resort had failed, all the debris of the failure had
simply been thrown pell-mell into the hold. Cleggett and Captain
Abernethy decided that the vessel, which was stepped for two
masts, should be rigged as a schooner. The Captain was soon busy
securing estimates on the amount of work that would have to be
done, and the cost of it. The pile of rubbish in the hold, which
filled it to such an extent that Cleggett gave up the attempt to
examine it, was to be removed by the same contractor who put in
the sticks.