led out his knife I whipped a harpoon
through him sharp, for I knew that it was him or me. That's how he died.
You can call it murder. Anyhow, I'd as soon die with a rope round my
neck as with Black Peter's knife in my heart."

"How came you there?" asked Holmes.

"I'll tell it you from the beginning. Just sit me up a little so as I
can speak easy. It was in '83 that it happened--August of that year.
Peter Carey was master of the SEA UNICORN, and I was spare harpooner. We
were coming out of the ice-pack on our way home, with head winds and a
week's southerly gale, when we picked up a little craft that had been
blown north. There was one man on her--a landsman. The crew had thought
she would founder, and had made for the Norwegian coast in the dinghy.
I guess they were all drowned. Well, we took him on board, this man, and
he and the skipper had some long talks in the cabin. All the baggage we
took off with him was one tin box. So far as I know, the man's name was
never mentioned, and on the second night he disappeared as if he had
never been. It was given out that he had either thrown himself overboard
or fallen overboard in the heavy weather that we were having. Only one
man knew what had happened to him, and that was me, for with my own
eyes I saw the skipper tip up his heels and put him over the rail in the
middle watch of a dark night, two days before we sighted the Shetland
lights.

"Well, I kept my knowledge to myself and waited to see what would come
of it. When we got back to Scotland it was easily hushed up, and nobody
asked any questions. A stranger died by an accident, and it was nobody's
business to inquire. Shortly after Peter Carey gave up the sea, and it
was long years before I could find where he was. I guessed that he had
done the deed for the sake of what was in that tin box, and that he
could afford now to pay me well for keeping my mouth shut.

"I found out where he was through a sailor man that had met him
in London, and down I went to squeeze him. The first night he was
reasonable enough, and was ready to give me what would make me free of
the sea for life. We were to fix it all two nights later. When I came
I found him three parts drunk and in a vile temper. We sat down and we
drank and we yarned about old times, but the more he drank the less I
liked the look on his face. I spotted that harpoon upon the wall, and I
thought I might need it before I was through. Then at last he broke
out at me,