run that there injin and you’ll shake her to pieces, get her in a beam sea and she’ll strain her heart open. But mind you she’s fast, her lines are good, but they’re just lines held together by a lick of paint.”

Hank was down on his knees testing the planking to which the bed plates were fixed with his knife.

Then he rose up and led the way on deck. They examined the foc’sle. It had accommodations for six.

Coming out of the foc’sle, Hank began a cruise of his own, poking about here and there. Then he dived down below again.

When he came on deck he handed Jake the five dollars for his information and they left the ship.

He took George’s arm as they went along the wharf.

“Remember,” said he, “what I told you to-day about the Wear Jack being an optical delusion.”

“Yes, and you seem to have been pretty right.”

“Oh, was I? Well, way back in my head I was34 thinking different, and I only know that now. I can’t explain my head piece, except by saying it goes by instinct. When I saw Jake the other day, he must have climbed right down into my mind and sat there ever since, explaining things without my knowing, otherwise I’m doubtful if I’d have been so keen on Tyrebuck letting me have the old Jack. Not that I mind risking my life, but there it is, I wouldn’t have been as keen and maybe wouldn’t have pushed the deal through. It’s the biggest deal I’ve ever made.”

34

“How’s that?”

“Why, Bud, can’t you see what’s wrong with the schooner?”

“No.”

“Jake! The schooner’s as sound as I am. She’s not as young as she used to be, but she’s one of the old navy that was built to wear. I’ve examined her. You remember my telling you that rats couldn’t beat humans in tricks? Well, it was just beginning to hit me then that maybe all that raffle and dirt on her deck and all the yarns I’d heard about her were put out by Jake.”

“Why?”

“Why, to keep his job. He don’t want her sold. She’s his job. Besides, he’s been collecting five dollars a time, and maybe more, from every mug of a buyer he’s given ‘a straight tip’ about her. That’s human nature. He 

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