“‘I s’pose you’d know him again if you was to see him?’ he says; and he looked at me in a curious sort of way that makes me think, ‘Now, what the mischief are you a-drivin’ at? It’s my belief, Joe,’ thinks I, ‘that this chap’s layin’ a trap for you; and if you don’t keep your weather eye liftin’, you’ll fall into it, my lad,’ thinks I. So I just says, careless-like—
“‘Oh yes, in course I should.’
“‘When did you see him last?’ says Rogers.
“‘The last time I seen him,’ says I, ‘was the day we arrived in Sydney, when the skipper paid him off and he left the ship.’
“‘Quite sure?’ says Bill.
“‘Certain,’ says I.
“Then he laughed, and he says, ‘Well, Joe, you’re a more simple sort of a feller than I give you credit for bein’. Come into the galley,’ he says, ‘and let me introjuce you to an old friend.’
“So we went into the galley together, and there was cookie busy amongst his pots and pans. When he sees us come in, he looks hard at Bill, and he says—
“‘Well?’
“I tell you, Cap’n Saint Leger, you might ha’ knocked me down with a rope-yarn, I was that astonished—for the voice was the voice of George Moore, and no other.