nd git it
off your chest."

"Oh, nothing special," replied the captain evasively.

"Yes there is," retorted Tyke. "You can't fool me. So let's have it."

"Well, to tell you the truth," said Captain Hamilton, "I don't quite
like the actions of the crew."

"No more do I," said Tyke calmly.

"Have you noticed it too?"

"I've still got a pair of pretty good eyes in my head. But heave
ahead."

"Well, in the first place," said the captain, "it's about the worst set
of swabs that ever called themselves sailors. Some of 'em don't seem
to know the spanker boom from the jib. Of course, that isn't true of
all of 'em. Perhaps half of them are fairly good men. But the rest
seem to be scum and riffraff."

"What did you ship the lubbers for?" asked Grimshaw.

"I didn't," answered Captain Hamilton. "I was so busy with other
things that I left it to Ditty."

"An' there you left it to a good man!" Tyke said scornfully. "I've
been keeping tabs on that Bug-eye, as they call him, since I come
aboard. He's a bad actor, he is. Listen here, Cap'n Rufe----" and the
old man, with a warning hand on Captain Hamilton's knee and in a low
voice, repeated what he had told Drew in the hospital about the
one-eyed man being at the scene of his accident.

"And was it Ditty?" gasped Captain Hamilton.

"Surest thing you know. An' I don't believe I dreamed he went through
my pockets. What was that for, when he didn't rob me of my watch and
cash?"

The master of the schooner shook his head thoughtfully, making no
immediate reply.

"Ditty's a pretty good sailor himself, I notice," went on Tyke.

"None better," assented the captain.

"An' he knows a sailor when he sees one?" continued the old man.

"Of course he does," the captain affirmed. "And that's what has seemed
strange to me. He's often picked crews for me before, and I've never
had to complain of his judgment."

"Well then," concluded Tyke, "it stands to reason that if he's shipped
a lot of raffraff this time, instead of decent sailors, he'd a reason
for it."

"It would seem so," admitted the captain uneasily.

"Have you put it up to him?" asked Tyke.

"I have. And he admits that some of the men are no good, but says that
he was stuck. He left it to some boarding-house runners, and he says
they put one over on him by bundling the worst of the gang aboard at
the last minute."

"A mighty thin excuse," commented Tyke.

"Of course it is; and I raked Ditty for