"The—Sally Ann," he answered.
"You don't say!" said the other, with animation. "I was aboard the Sally Ann myself, one v'y'ge."
"Confound you, I'm sorry to hear it!" thought the impostor.
"There's more than one Sally Ann, it's likely," he said. "Who was your captain?"
"Captain Rice."
"Mine was Captain Talbot."
"How long was your v'y'ge, shipmate?"
Now Marlowe had no knowledge of the number of days such a voyage ought to take. He knew that the California steamers came in in three or four weeks, and the difference of speed did not occur to him, not to speak of the vastly greater distance round Cape Horn.
"Thirty days," he answered, at random.
"Thirty days!" exclaimed the sailor, in amazement. "Did you go round the Horn in thirty days?"