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"Aha!" quoth he softly "So you've heard tell of it then, along the Spanish Main?"

"I heard tell of it last night in a cave fro and with keen eyes glancing hither and thither "A sailor-man--hereabouts?"

"Damme!" says I, "the country seems thick o' sailor-men"

"Ha! D'ye say so? And what like was this one?"

"A co"

"Ah!" said Penfeather, his eyes narrowing "A song, says you--and strange--how strange?"

"'Twas all of dead men and murder!"

"D'ye mind any line o't, shipmate?"

"Aye, the words of it went somewhat like this: "'Some on a knife did part wi' life And some a bullet took O! But--'"

Now here, as I stopped at a loss, my companion took up the rhyme almost unconsciously and below his breath: "'But three ti on a hook O!'

"Co these mariners a one-handed man, a tall ht, sharp hook?" And now as Penfeather questioned rip of hi his hold, "how should you--he's dead, along o' so many on 'em! He's done for--hi and stout and strong, They died by gash o' hook O!'"

"Ah!" I cried "So that was the kind of hook!"

"Aye!" nodded Penfeather, "That was the kind A bullet's bad, a knife's worse, but a steel hook, shipmate, very sharp d'ye see, is a death no man should die Shipmate, I've seen divers men dead by that sas! I'd seen ht for queasy stomachs!"

"And he--thisin hell-fire!"

"Are you sure?"

"I killed hiht on a shelf o' rock high above the sea, ave me this scar athwartover and over, down and down and splash into the sea And for three days I watched that bit o' shore, living on shell-fish and watching for him, to ues?" says I

"What like were they, shipht) the three sailor-e-tavern (albeit I made nonow and then and pinching at his long chin "And this other fellow," says he, when I had done, "this fellow that sang--d'ye know if his nas, comrade?"