f them Chile ports for repairs. So she never got to Frisco
until after we sailed for 'ome. An' that was the way it went on. She kep'
dodgin' me all over the seven seas, an' the nearest I got to 'er was when
we give 'er a cheer off Sydney Heads, outward bound, when we was just
pickin' up our pilot. The last I 'eard of 'er after that was from a feller
that 'ad seen 'er knockin' round the South Pacific, sailin' out o' Carrizal
or Antofagasta or one o' them places. I was in the Western Ocean mail-boat
service at the time, and so o' course she was off my run altogether.

"I was still in the same mail-boat when she give up the passenger business
an' went on the North Sea patrol.

"Well, one day we boarded a Chile barque in the ordinary course o' duty,
and I was one o' those as went on board with the lootenant. They generally
takes me on them jobs, the reason bein' that I know a deal o' foreign
languages. I don't believe there's a country in the world where I couldn't
make myself understood, partic'lar when I'm wantin' a drink bad.

"I wasn't takin' that much notice of this 'ere ship at the time (there was
a bit of a nasty jobble on the water, for one thing, and we 'ad our work
cut out gettin' alongside), except that 'er name was the _Maria de
Somethink-or-other_--some Dago name. But while we was waitin' for the
lootenant to finish 'is business with Old Monkey Brand, which was the
black-faced Chileno captain she 'ad, it come over me all of a suddent.

"'Strike me pink!' I says, 'may my name be Dennis if I 'aven't seen that
there bit o' fancy-work on the poop ladder rails before;' which so I 'ad,
for I done it myself in the doldrums, an' a nice bit o' work it was, too.

"You'll 'ave guessed by now that she was none other than the _Pearl of
Asia_; an' no wonder I 'adn't reckernised 'er, what with the mess she was
in alow and aloft, an' allyminian paint all over the poop railin's as would
'ave made our old blue-nose mate die o' rage.

"'You carry on 'ere,' I says to the feller that was with me; 'I'm goin'
for'ard a minute.'

"'Arf a minute, an' I was in my old bunk; an' there was the cache all
right, just like I left it."

He paused dramatically; I supposed it was for histrionic effect, but it
lasted so long that I said, "And so I suppose you sent the ring to the girl
after all?"

"Oh! '_er!_" he said, with an air of surprise, "I've forgot 'er name and
all about 'er, only that she 'ad a brother in one o' them monkey-boats