"
"I didn't know but ye got it piratin'," chuckled Milt. "Bet Gallup,
she swears you sailed under the Jolly Roger more'n once."
"So I did," declared the captain boldly. "This crew o' mutineers I
speak of turned pirates, and they held me--the only one of the
afterguard left alive--to navigate the ship.
"Guess mebbe you've heard tell, Cap'n Joab, of the mutiny of the
_Galatea_?" went on the narrator unblushingly.
His fellow skipper nodded. "I've heard of it--yes. But you don't mean
to say you sailed on _her_, Am'zon?"
"Yes, I did," the storekeeper declared. "I was third aboard her--she
carried a full crew. She sailed out o' N'York for Australia and home
by the way of the Chile ports and the Horn--a hermaphrodite brig she
was; and--she--could--sail!
"But she warn't well found. The grub was wuss'n a Blue-nose herrin'
smack's. Weevilly bread and rusty beef. The crew had a sayin' that
the doc didn't have to call 'em to mess; the smell of it was sufficient.
"They was a hard crew I allow--them boys; many of 'em dock rats and the
like.
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