“We must be careful now how we proceed, for if the ‘Spitfire’ floats at the flood, Captain Stoker will try perhaps to overhaul us.”
“Don’t we want to wood and water, and ain’t there some repairs wanting,” sais I, and I gave him a wink. “If so we can put into port; but I don’t think we will attempt to fish again within the treaty limits, for it’s dangerous work.”
“Yes,” sais he, touching his nose with the point of his finger, “all these things are needed, and when they are going on, the mate and I can attend to the business of the owners.” He then looked cautiously round to see that the captain was not within hearing.
“Warn’t it the ‘Black Hawk’ that was chased?” said he. “I think that was our name then.”
“Why, to be sure it was,” said I.
“Well,” sais he, “this is the ‘Sary Ann’ of New Bedford now,” and proceeding aft he turned a screw, and I could hear a board shift in the stern. “Do you mind that?” said he: “well, you can’t see it where you stand just now at present; but the ‘Sary Ann’ shows her name there now, and we have a set of papers to correspond. I guess the Britisher can’t seize her, because the ‘Black Hawk’ broke the treaty; can he?” And he gave a knowing jupe of his head, as much as to say, ain’t that grand?
“Now our new captain is a strait-laced sort of man, you see; but the cantin’ fellow of a master you had on board before, warn’t above a dodge of this kind. If it comes to the scratch, you must take the command again, for Cutler won’t have art nor part in this game; and we may be reformed out afore we know where we are.”
“Well,” sais I, “there is no occasion, I guess; put us somewhere a little out of sight, and we won’t break the treaty no more. I reckon the ‘Spitfire,’ after all, would just as soon be in port as looking after us. It’s small potatoes for a man-of-war to be hunting poor game, like us little fore and afters.”
“As you like,” he said, “but we are prepared, you see, for the mate and men understand the whole thing. It ain’t the first time they have escaped by changing their sign-board.”
“Exactly,” said I, “a ship ain’t like a dog that can only answer to one name; and ‘Sary Ann’ is as good as the ‘Black Hawk,’ every mite and morsel. There is a good deal of fun in altering sign-boards. I recollect wunst, when I was a boy, there was a firm to Slickville who had this sign over their shop: