"Say, Shanghai, did you ever hear of Barney's bull?"
And when Smith refused to answer, they answered for him.
"He was jammed in a clinch, and so are you. You're goin' to 'ave the finest time of all your life. Did you ever 'ear of Sant of the 'Arvester?"
And Smith, for all his brutal courage, shook in his boots.
"I'll give you chaps a hundred dollars to put me ashore," he cried. "I never touched Sir Richard Dunn."
"Dry up," said Benson, "and don't lie. We wouldn't part with you, my jewel, not for a thousand. What made you desert from the 'Arvester, a comfortable ship like that, with sich a duck of a skipper?"
"I'll give you a thousand," said Smith desperately.
"At four o'clock you're goin' on the 'Arvester—and 'tis nigh on three now. Sant wouldn't miss a man like you, so smart and 'andy, for all the gold in Californy. Own up as you shanghaied the admiral?"
Smith grasped at any chance of avoiding the Harvester. For Sant had a dreadful name, and both his mates were terrors.
"If I own I put him away, will you take me ashore and hand me over to the police?"