ed no end of
worry and suspicion, and was worked in this way:--Of their two principal
boats Dan'l as a rule commanded the _Black Joke_, a Porthleven-built
lugger of about forty tons, as we measure nowadays (but upon the old plan
she would work out nearer a hundred and forty); and Phoby a St. Ives
ketch, the _Nonesuch_, of about the same size. But which was the _Black
Joke_ and which the _Nonesuch_ you never could be sure, for the lugger
carried fids, topmast, crosstrees, and a spare suit of sails to turn her
into a ketch at twenty minutes' notice; and likewise the ketch could ship
topmast, shift her rigging, and hoist a spare suit of lug-sails in no
longer time. The pair of them, too, had false quarter-pieces to ship and
unship for disguise, and each was provided with movable boards painted
with the other's name, to cover up her own. The tale went that once when
the pair happened to be lying together in New Grimsby Sound in the
Scillies, during an eclipse of the sun, Dan'l and Phoby took it into their
heads to change rigs in the darkness, just for fun; and that the Revenue
Officer, that had gone over to the island of Bryher to get a better view
of the eclipse, happening to lower his telescope on the vessels as the
light began to grow again, took fright, waded across to Tresco for his
life (the tide being low), and implored the Lord Proprietor's agent to
lock him up; "for," said he, "either the world or my head has turned round
in the last twenty minutes, and whichever 'tis, I want to be put in a cool
place out of temptation." But the usual plan was, of course, for the two
to change rigs at night-time when on a trip, and by agreement, and for the
one to slock off suspicion while the other ran the cargo. Yes, yes; Dan'l
Leggo and Phoby Geen were both very ingenious young men, though by
disposition so different: and when John Carter in his retirement heard of
the trick, he slapped his leg and said in his large-hearted way that dammy
he couldn't have invented a neater; and at the same time fined himself
sixpence for swearing, which had been his rule when he was Cove-master.
I once saw a bill of his made out in form, and this was how it ran:--

John CARTER in account with ROGER TRISCOTT otherwise CLICKPAW.

To I weeks arnins ten shillin

Item share on 40 ankers at sixpence
per anker one pound
less two dams at 6d. and a worse word