e, for I'm not that kind of a
man. If I t'ought I had wan that money fair, there's never a soul here
could get it from me. But I t'ought it was in fun; that was my mistake,
ye see; and there's no man big enough upon this island to give a present
to my mother's son. So there's my opinion to ye, plumber, and you can
put it in your pockut till required."

"Well, I will say, Mac, you're a gentleman," said Carthew, as he helped
him to shovel back his winnings into the treasure-chest.

"Divil a fear of it, sir, a drunken sailor-man," said Mac.

The captain had sat somewhile with his face in his hands; now he rose
mechanically, shaking and stumbling like a drunkard after a debauch. But
as he rose, his face was altered, and his voice rang out over the isle,
"Sail ho!"

All turned at the cry, and there, in the wild light of the morning,
heading straight for Midway Reef, was the brig _Flying Scud_ of Hull.

CHAPTER XXIV

A HARD BARGAIN

The ship which thus appeared before the castaways had long "tramped" the
ocean, wandering from one port to another as freights offered. She was
two years out from London, by the Cape of Good Hope, India, and the
Archipelago; and was now bound for San Francisco in the hope of working
homeward round the Horn. Her captain was one Jacob Trent. He had retired
some five years before to a suburban cottage, a patch of cabbages, a
gig, and the conduct of what he called a Bank. The name appears to have
been misleading. Borrowers were accustomed to choose works of art and
utility in the front shop; loaves of sugar and bolts of broadcloth were
deposited in pledge; and it was a part of the manager's duty to dash in
his gig on Saturday evenings from one small retailer's to another, and
to annex in each the bulk of the week's takings. His was thus an active
life, and, to a man of the type of a rat, filled with recondite joys. An
unexpected loss, a lawsuit, and the unintelligent commentary of the
judge upon the bench, combined to disgust him of the business. I was so
extraordinarily fortunate as to find, in an old newspaper, a report of
the proceedings in Lyall _v._ The Cardiff Mutual Accommodation Banking
Co. "I confess I fail entirely to understand the nature of the
business," the judge had remarked, while Trent was being examined in
chief; a little after, on fuller information--"They call it a bank," he
had opined, "but it seems to me to be an unlicensed pawn-shop"; and he
wound up with this ap