ll. Believe _me_,
sir, they was no rush for'ard--with Tommy Mib below.

"'Skipper Jim,' says I, one day, 'what _is_ you goin' t' do?'

"'Well, Docks,' says he, 'I'm thinkin' I'll go see Jagger.'

"So we beat up t' Wayfarer's Tickle--makin' port in the dusk. Skipper
Jim went ashore, but took nar a one of us with un. He was there a
wonderful long time; an' when he come aboard, he orders the anchor up
an' all sail made.

"'Where you goin'?' says I.

"'Tradin',' says he.

"'Is you?' says I.

"'Ay,' says he. 'Jagger says 'tis a wonderful season for fish.'"

Docks paused. "Skipper Billy," he said, breaking off the narrative and
fixing the impassive skipper of the _Greased Lightning_ with an anxious
eye, "did they have the smallpox at Tops'l Cove? Come now; did they?"

"Ay, sir," Skipper Billy replied; "they had the smallpox at Tops'l
Cove."

"Dear man!" Docks repeated, "they had the smallpox at Tops'l Cove! We
was three days at Tops'l Cove, with folk aboard every day, tradin' fish.
An' Tommy Mib below! We touched Smith's Arm next, sir. Come now, speak
fair; did they have it there?"

"They're not rid of it yet," said Doctor Luke.

"Smith's Arm too!" Docks groaned.

"An' Harbour Rim," the skipper added.

"Noon t' noon at Harbour Rim," said Docks.

"And Highwater Cove," the doctor put in.

"Twenty quintal come aboard at Highwater Cove. I mind it well."

"They been dyin' like flies at Seldom Cove."

"Like flies?" Docks repeated, in a hoarse whisper. "Skipper Billy, sir,
who--who died--like that?"

Skipper Billy drew his hand over his mouth. "One was a kid," he said,
tugging at his moustache.

"My God!" Docks muttered. "One was a kid!"

In the pause--in the silence into which the far-off, wailing chorus of
wind and sea crept unnoticed--Skipper Billy and Docks stared into each
other's eyes.

"An' a kid died, too," said the skipper.

Again the low, wailing chorus of wind and sea, creeping into the
silence. I saw the light in Skipper Billy's eyes sink from a flare to a
glow; and I was glad of that.

"'Twas a cold, wet day, with the wind blowin' in from the sea, when we
dropped anchor at Little Harbour Deep," Docks continued. "We always kep'
the forecastle closed tight an' set a watch when we was in port; an' the
forecastle was tight enough that day, but the second hand, whose watch
it was, had t' help with the fish, for 'tis a poor harbour there, an' we
was in haste t' get out. The folk was loafin' abo