derstanding
with the American when Alfredo Redvignez put in an appearance and
applied for a berth, saying that he had heard the best kinds of
accounts of the captain's seamanship and humanity--even in far-away
Boston.

Redvig--so called for convenience--said that he had been employed in
the East India trade, and was a sailor of nearly twenty years'
experience. It struck both Captain Bergen and Mate Storms that, as
they were going to the tropics, he was likely to prove a useful man,
and he was engaged.

The captain ventured to ask Brazzier's opinion of the other sailor,
but the American said he had never heard of him before--though he
liked the cut of his jib, and was glad he had been hired. But had any
one been watching the faces of the American and Spaniard, he would
have detected several suspicious signals which passed between them;
and this, added to the fact that, in a very short time, they became
intimately acquainted, as may be said, looked as if there had been
deception on that point.

The fact was, the two had arranged the matter beforehand, so as to go
together in this business--somewhat on the same principle that their
employers entered into partnership. They were both serving under
assumed names, and were obliged to take no little precaution to keep
their identity concealed, for they were "wanted" for serious crimes in
more than one port.

Redvig was a small, swarthy, muscular man, with coal-black, curling
hair, short, curly beard and mustache, black eyes, with an aquiline
nose, and both he and Brazzier had a fashion of wearing small gold
ear-rings. Their arms and breast were plentifully tattooed, so that
but for the great exception of their evil dispositions, they might
well have passed for good specimens of the proverbial Jack tar.

It was different with the huge colored man, Pomp Cooper, who had been
known about the wharves of San Francisco for a number of years. He was
jolly and good-natured, possessed of prodigious strength, and had been
on shipboard enough to acquire a fair knowledge of navigating a
coasting vessel.

While many believed he possessed the proverbial loyalty of his race,
and could not be induced to commit any grave crime, yet it must be
admitted that there were ugly rumors afloat concerning him. It was
asserted by more than one that he was a river and harbor pirate, and
belonged to one of the worst gangs that ever infested the harbor of
San Francisco.

While Captain Bergen was n