e
with the crew, I am afraid, Brant?"

The repulsive captain twisted his features into a grimace that would
have curdled milk, at the same time emitting a sound like the snarl of a
wolf. "The maintenance of discipline among a lot of toughs like those I
selected isn't child's play," he said. "It only wants a rule of three
sum to find out how soon I shall have no crew at all if we are to lay
idle here much longer. I've had to shoot one as dead as Queen Anne and
crack the heads of four others for kicking over the traces."

The answer, delivered coolly and as a matter of course, seemed ludicrous
coming from the undersized, deformed creature with the top-heavy head.
But Nugent evidently knew his man, for he merely nodded comprehension
and approval. "It is because you are such a holy terror, Brant, that I
selected you for the job," he said. "There was bound to be trouble, at
the start of a cruise for which the hands were induced to join by the
promise of a rich reward, if any hitch occurred."

"It is entirely the delay that caused the ructions," the captain
assented. "You see, they don't know whether they're on a treasure hunt
or what, and they're in a hurry to finger the pieces. To keep 'em from
letting their jaw tackle run in the pubs I didn't allow much shore
liberty--none at all since I had to pump Black Jake, a fireman, full of
lead for inciting to mutiny."

"But how about the--er--necessary formalities?" asked Nugent, genuinely
interested in the drastic methods of his instrument.

Captain Brant uttered the unpleasant combination of croak and wheeze
that did duty with him for a laugh. "You mean the inquest and funeral?
We have no use for little extras like them on the _Cobra_. I'm the law
on this ship. I took a kind of a trial trip out to sea for a couple of
hours, and cremated Black Jake in his own furnace. That put the fear of
the devil into the rest, and we're a happy family now. I wouldn't
guarantee to hold 'em for more than a fortnight, though, tied up to this
cursed quay. The officers are right enough. Bully Cheeseman, the chap
who was at the gangway when you boarded us, is a fair scorcher. Twenty
years ago he was suspected of being Jack the Ripper; and Wiley the
second mate, as you know, has done time for manslaughter."

Travers Nugent gazed thoughtfully through the circular window of the
deck-cabin at the teeming quay-side, and the array of public-houses
across the road. He was not at all dissatisfied with