"I don't like the looks of two or three of them. For all you know they may be more than willing to expose you—if you fall in with the Russians. Can you trust your first and second mates?"
"I can! They are as honest as myself."
"Then caution them to keep an eye on the hands. One of those fellows looks like a Russian to me—the chap with the heavy black beard."
"You mean Semmel. He says he is a Pole and that he hates the Russians."
"Humph! Well, I saw him talking to a lot of Russians night before last. And when they passed a Jap the whole crowd jeered at the little brown man."
"Semmel, too?"
"Yes."
"Then I shall watch him," answered Captain Ponsberry, decidedly.
"Do, but don't let him know it. Some of these foreign sailors are ugly when they find out they are being suspected."
"Trust me to manage him," returned the commander of the Columbia; and there the talk on the subject came to an end.