"What do you expect? You know the _Seamew_ is hoodooed. Huh!
_Seamew_! That ain't no more her rightful name than it is mine."
"I wouldn't say that."
"I would!" snapped 'Rion. "She's the _Marlin B._, out o' Salem. No
matter what he says, or anybody else. She's the murder ship. If he
sailed her over that place outside o' Salem Harbor where those poor
fellows was drowned, they'd rise again and curse the schooner and
all aboard her."
The old man shuddered. He turned his face away and spat reflectively
over the rail. The tug of the steering chains to starboard was even
then thrilling the cords of his hands and arms with an almost
electric shock. 'Rion watched him slyly. He knew the impression he
was making on the old man's superstitious mind. He played upon it as
he did upon the childish minds of some of the Portygee seamen.
So Captain Tunis Latham did not arrive in Boston in a very calm
frame of mind. Although he had no words with 'Rion, and really no
trouble with the crew in general, he felt that trouble was brewing.
And the worst of it was, it was trouble which he did not know how to
avert.
It was not so easy to fill the empty berth in the forecastle, even
from the offscourings of the docks.
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