I'll make the
coffee. Tell me when Mr. Chapin comes. I suppose we can hire enough
hands to get the freight aboard."
"But we can't work the schooner with three men, Cap'n Tunis; nor
yet with four."
"Don't I know that? I'll get a crew if I have to shanghai them,"
promised Tunis grimly.
Mason Chapin came along with half a dozen fellows after a while. One
was a negro who could cook. But there was no breakfast worthy of the
name served aboard the _Seamew_ that morning. They were late already
in getting to work.
It was the middle of the forenoon before the schooner left port.
There was a crew, such as it was. But Mason Chapin had been obliged
to promise them extra pay to get them aboard the schooner at all.
When 'Rion Latham slipped aboard finally, half the loading of the
cargo had been accomplished. Tunis himself was keeping tally. The
skipper beckoned his cousin to him.
"'Rion," he said, "you certainly are about as useless a fellow as I
ever had anything to do with. These Portygees who have left me in
the lurch have some excuse for their actions. They are ignorant and
superstitious. You know mighty well that the stuff you have been
repeating about the schooner being cursed is nothing but lies and
old-women's gossip! You've done it to make trouble.
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