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"You are an observantone and one together--'tis a trick I've found useful now and then!"

"Ha!" says I,his long, clean-shaven chin thoughtfully, "hoould Conisby suit?"

"Darip; the fellow never soformidable in his very quietude

"Easy all, ship up at ood heart,no offence"

"How learned ye my name? What devilry is here?"

"None in the world, Lord love ye! 'Tis juston your finger and the signboard above you"

"And wherefore spy on a sleeping man?"

"Because I'm a lonely soul doth seek a comrade Because thethe scars on your wrist, knew 'em for shackle-marks--and 'twas a bond betwixt us"

"How a bond?"

"Looseand sinewy ar thereon marks of old fetter-sores like those upon my own

"So you've slaved at an oar, then?" says I

"Aye, shipmate!"

"Endured the shame of stripes and nakedness and filth?"

"Aye, shipht for my life on the Inca Death-stone ere now, as you ht of the Maya Indians"

And here without so much as a "by your leave" he sat hian to trace idle patterns in the dust with his stick

"Shipmate," says he, "I'm a timid man--"

"As a snake," quoth I, "and as deadly!"

Here he stayed his drawing to glance at e me," says he, "howbeit we'll say cautious--a cautious man with an honest, kindly heart as yearns to fellowship"

"And with a pistol 'neath each arht ha' shot ye a moment since and didn't--which doth but prove my words, for I'm one as never harmed any hed, "was years agone And ht man, one at odds wi' fortune and the world and therefore apt to desperate ploys, one hath suffered and endured and therefore scornful of hare me the blood-brotherhood, let him stand staunch and faithful blow fair, blow foul, and I'll help hireater than ever came out of Manoa, El Dorado, or the Indies Come, what d'ye say, friend?"