"They made it fast right enough," growled Harris. "I never see no tinned milk nursed so particular as this, blow me if I did! But when I started this side so's I could get my thumb in, I was Jerry Smith—here, cap'n—quick while I hold this side out—put your thumb in there and feel the aidge."
"It feels like it. Take the light from the boy and hold it down so I can get a look at it—no, let him keep it, Mr. Harris—you hold the board out so I can see it in good shape—down, Rajah, down low, so."
I tried to see what they were doing, but all I could make out was Captain Riggs as he bent low between me and the object on which the light was turned. I put my ear back to the keyhole.
"Sally Ann! Sally Ann!" I heard Captain Riggs exclaim, and then he whistled. "Blast me if ye ain't right, Mr. Harris!"
"I knew I was right," growled Harris. "Can't fool me with that—it felt like it and looked like it, and that man Trego fits into the game to a T. I thought he was a mighty shady customer from the first look I got at him, when he come alongside and bossed things. When he got that knife throwed in him I thought I'd come down here and have a look around on my own hook, and thar ye be, cap'n."
"But Sally Ann! What are we going to do with it? We can't leave it here, can we?"
"Maybe it would be better, at that," said Harris. "But I look at it this way, cap'n—somebody knows it's here, that's what. Maybe the parson; maybe that Mr. Trenhum; maybe Petrak knowed about it; maybe Buckrow and Long Jim knows; but, anyhow, whoever had that knife hooked into Trego knowed, and ye can put that in yer pipe and smoke it."
"But I don't believe anybody would broach cargo. We can keep the door locked, and bury this under a mess of stuff, say spare chain and a lot of old heavy gear."
"Broach Tophet!" snorted Harris. "Ye call this cargo, Cap'n Riggs? Wal, if ye do, I don't! Broach cargo! Think a man that would kill Trego, or get him killed, would stop at broaching cargo to git his paws on this?"
"That's true enough," said Riggs. "It's bad business to have it aboard,
Mr. Harris. I hope nobody in the ship knows about it. If they find out it
may lead to trouble, and I'm too old to have trouble with my ships now.
I've had trouble enough this night as it is—"