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“It ain’t a cut It’s a gouge”

“You can call it a gouge if you like, mate, but I say he whacked it with a sword”

“Where the blooet his paws on a sword?”

“Concealed in his walking stick Wouldn’t you agree, sir?” he added, enlisting support when he saw Isaac Bell studying the gouge intently

“Wire,” Isaac Bell said

“Beg your pardon, sir?”

“Wire A thin braided-wire cable”

“Well, yes, it could be braided cable, sir On the other hand, you et a braided cable and ould he whack the rail with it? Unless he was an out-and-out vandal Not that we don’t get the odd one or two of them aboard— You’ll recall, Jake, there was that Frenchman”

“What do you expect?”

“An acrobat,” Bell said, half aloud Had the Acrobat so with a flexible wire cable?

“Acrobat? No, sir, begging your pardon, that Frenchie was no acrobat”

“A German acrobat”

The seamen traded baffled looks”Well, if you say so, sir”

“An acrobat it is, sir”

As Bell hurried away, he heard whispers behind him “What the blazes was he rattlin’ on about?”