That is all I contend for, Captain Cuffe.
Even women, they tell me, take what is called their thirds, in a
fellow's fortin'."

"Well, well, Strand, I suppose there must be some truth in your
doctrine, or you wouldn't hold out for it so strenuously; and as for
this coast, I must give it up, for I never expect to see another like
it; much less a third."

"It's my duty to give up to your honor; but I ask permission to think a
third chase should always be the last one. That's a melancholy sight to
a man of feelin', Captain Cuffe, the object between the two
midship-guns, on the starboard side of the main-deck, sir?"

"You mean the prisoner? I wish with all my heart he was not there,
Strand. I think I would rather he were in his lugger again, to run the
chances of that fourth chase of which you seem to think so lightly."

"Your hanging ships are not often lucky ships, Captain Cuffe. In my
judgment, asking your pardon, sir, there ought to be a floating jail in
every fleet, where all the courts and all the executions should
be held."

"It would be robbing the boatswains of no small part of their duty, were
the punishments to be sent out of the different vessels," answered
Cuffe, smiling.

"Aye, aye, sir--the punishments, I grant, your honor; but hanging is an
_execution_, and not a punishment. God forbid that at my time of life I
should be ordered to sail in a ship that has no punishment on board; but
I am really getting to be too old to look at executions with any sort of
pleasure. Duty that isn't done with pleasure is but poor duty at the
best, sir."

"There are many disagreeable and some painful duties to be performed,
Strand; this of executing a man, let the offence be what it may, is
among the most painful."

"For my part, Captain Cuffe, I do not mind hanging a mutineer so very
much, for he is a being that the world ought not to harbor; but it is a
different thing with an enemy and a spy. It's our duty to spy as much as
we can for our king and country, and one ought never to bear too hard on
such as does their duty. With a fellow that can't obey orders, and who
puts his own will above the pleasure of his superiors, I have no
patience; but I do not so much understand why the gentlemen of the
courts are so hard on such as do a little more reconn'itrin'
than common."

"That is because ships are less exposed to the attempts of spies than
armies' Strand. A soldier hates a spy as much as you do a mutineer. The
reaso