and some high-rating gun pointer, who's as
likely to be me as anybody else, would probably have to use you for a
little target practice.'

"'And you c'n lay 'em pretty close aboard, can't you, Ed--strings o'
bull's-eyes at six and eight and ten thousand yards--hah?'

"'I have landed 'em as close as that,' says Ed.

"'But an old shipmate, Ed?' I says.

"'Now, Alec----'

"'Bill--Bill Whitely,' I says.

"'Well, Bill Whitely, then, though you'd better let me call you Alec. I
think I'd shoot a bit wider thinking of Alec Corning than anybody named
Bill Whitely. If you don't leave me any other way out of it, I'd maybe
keep scraping the paint off you as long as I could.'

"'Your idea bein' to do the right thing by the Gover'ment in the end,
Ed?'

"'That's it,' says Ed.

"'Well, Ed,' I says, 'if you should happen to see such a thing as a
moving picture of the _Hattie_ stealin' out to sea, and it's up to you
to bring her to, say at five or six or eight thousand yards, just scrape
the paint with the first two or three, will you, by way o' telling me
how it's you, Ed?'

"'All right,' says Ed.

"'And we shook hands over that. 'And maybe the Gover'ment won't be
losing anything at that,' I says.

"After a time Ed Gurney left me to go on the night watch, and I was
standing by the rail, figuring how I was going to get back to the
_Hattie_, when Durks comes looking for me.

"'Of course,' says Durks, 'you had no idea of it, but I organized this
expedition as much to get Johnnie Sing out of the way and separate him
from his wife as to smuggle in the cargo of hemp.'

"'The duty on hemp,' I interrupts, 'must be very high, Mr. Durks.'

"'What? It is--yes,' he says.

"'And how much _is_ the duty on hemp?' I asks.

"And he don't know. 'Hemp, humph!' I says, 'how much is the duty on--?'
and I stops.

"'On what?' he says.

"'On whatever's in those bales?' I answers.

"'Why, what is the duty?' he asks.

"Maybe there's no duty--maybe it's against the law to bring it in, no
matter what the duty,' I answers.

"And he sees I know too much, and from out of a pocket inside his vest
he draws a package of money and lets me look to see how much, and he
says: 'Five hundred now and five hundred when you turn over to me
Johnnie Sing--separate from his wife.'

"'If I could get back on the schooner,' I says, like I was studying it
out, 'back on her to-night, I'd guarantee I'd have Johnnie Sing aboard
her in the morning.'

"'But