"And Seth Upham's sold the brig."
"Sold it!" Arnold exclaimed. For the moment both he and I thought that Willie was lying to us.
"Ay, ay, sir. To be delivered in Africa. Half the money down, and half on delivery."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Why, sir," said the crafty youngster, who understood better than either of us the various subterfuges to which African traders resorted in order to elude searching cruisers, "all they have to do to change registry is to say she's delivered to the new owners, and fly a new flag and show the bill of sale."
"Go on, go on. Must I drag the story from you word by word?"
"Captain North, sir, said he'd be hanged first; and Mr. Gleazen said he'd be hanged anyway; and ain't that worth two bits?"
Arnold flung a coin to the grasping little wretch, and he went out and closed the door behind him.
It was dark just outside our stateroom, and neither Willie nor we had been able to see anything that might have been there. For half a minute after Willie left us, while he was feeling his way toward the cabin, all was still. Then he suddenly shrieked so wildly that we leaped from our berths.