"You hear what Hackett has to say," said the engineer, turning to Frank.
"I hear what this fellow has to say, but his name is not Hackett."
"Is not?"
"No, no more than mine is Hackett."
"Then what is his name?"
"His name is Harris!" asserted Merry, "and he is a gambler and a crook. I'll guarantee that he has not been long on the 'Eagle.'"
"No; we took him on in New York scarcely two hours before we sailed. We needed a man, and he applied for any kind of a job. Found he had worked round machinery, and we took him as wiper and general assistant."
"It was not so many weeks ago that he attacked me at New Haven," said Frank. "He failed to do me harm. When he found I was going abroad he declared he would go along on the same steamer. At the time he must have thought I was going by one of the regular liners; but it is plain he followed me up pretty close and found I was going over this way. As there is no second-class passage on this boat, he decided he could not travel in the same class with me without being discovered, and he resolved to go as one of the crew, if he could get on that way. That's how he happens to be here."
"If what you say is true, it will go pretty hard with Mr. Harris. We'll have him ironed and—"
A cry of rage broke from the lips of the accused.