ad, who said he was a sailor, and who called himself
Yoshahira Kuroki, and a Greek, George Stefanopolous.

The latter was a handsome, rather burly fellow of about thirty, a man
with a kindling eye and a habit of boasting of his ancestors.

Among them, he declared, was Leonidas, the hero of Thermopylae. George
admitted he was not a sailor, but professed a willingness to learn, and
looked so capable, as he squared his bulky shoulders and twisted his
fine black mustache, that Cleggett engaged him, taking him immediately
from the dairy lunch room in which he had been employed. George's idea
was to work his way back to Greece, he said, on the Jasper B. If she
did not sail for Greece for some time, George was willing to wait; he
was patient; sometime, no doubt, she would touch the shores of Greece.

The hold of the Jasper B. Cleggett and Captain Abernethy found to be in
a chaotic state. Casks, barrels, empty bottles by the hundred, ruins
of benches, tables, chairs, old nondescript pieces of planking, broken
crates and boxes, were flung together there in moldering confusion. It
was evident that after the scheme of using the Jasper B.'s hulk as one
of the attractions of a pleasure resort had failed, all the debris of
the failure had simply been thrown pell-mell into the hold. Cleggett
and Captain Abernethy decided that the vessel, which was stepped for
two masts, should be rigged as a schooner. The Captain was soon busy
securing estimates on the amount of work that would have to be done,
and the cost of it. The pile of rubbish in the hold, which filled it
to such an extent that Cleggett gave up the attempt to examine it, was
to be removed by the same contractor who put in the sticks.

All the activity on board and about the Jasper B. had not gone on
without attracting the attention of Morris's. Cleggett noticed that
there was usually someone in the neighborhood of that dubious resort
cocking an eye in the direction of the vessel. Indeed, the interest
became so pronounced, and seemed of a quality so different from
ordinary frank rustic curiosity, that it looked very like espionage.
It had struck Cleggett that Morris's seemed at all times to have more
than its share of idlers and hangers-on; men who appeared to make the
place their headquarters and were not to be confused with the
occasional off-season parties from the city.

On Sunday morning Cleggett was awakened by Captain Abernethy, who
announced:

"Strange craf