never let on what they was; but he hung on to her as a man will, sometimes,
agin feelin's that have more sense in 'em than reason, like as not. He knew
everybody at the Harbor would laugh at him for lettin' go such a prize as
that just for a notion, and it wan't his way, you may be sure; he didn't
need no one to tell him what she was wuth. Anyhow he hung to her, and next
day they beached her at high water, right over there by the old ship-yard.
He took Deacon S'lvine and his brother-in-law, Cap'n Purse--Pierce they
call it nowadays, but in the cap'n's time 'twas Purse. That sounds kind o'
broad and comfortable, like the cap'n's wescoat; but the family's thinnin'
down a good deal lately and gettin' kind o' sharp and lean, and may be
Pierce is more suitable. But 's I was sayin', Cap'n Green took them
two--cheerful, loud-talkin' men they was both of 'em--aboard of her to go
through her, for he hadn't no notion o' goin' into that cap'n's stateroom
alone, even in broad daylight; but 'twan't there the secret of her lay;
there wan't nothin' in there to scare anybody. She was trimmed up, I
tell you, just elegant. Real mahogany, none of your veneerin', but the
real stuff; lace curt'ins to the berth, lace on the pillows, and a satin
coverlid, rumpled up as though the cap'n had just turned out; and there was
his slippers handy--the greatest-lookin' slippers for a man you ever saw.
They wouldn't 'a' been too big for the neatest-footed woman in the Harbor.
But Land! they was just thick with mould, and so was everythin' in the
place, even to an old gittar with the strings most rotted off of it,
and the picters of fur-rin-lookin' women on the walls,--trinin'-lookin'
creeturs most of 'em. They hunted all through his desk, but couldn't find
no log. 'Twas plain enough that whoever'd left that ship had took pains
that she shouldn't tell no tales, and 'twan't long before they found out
the reason.

"When they come to go below,--there was considerable of a crowd on deck by
that time, standin' round while they knocked out the keys and took off the