now; if
there's nothing wrong it won't matter, and if there is, perhaps they'll
be inclined to have me in with 'em, if they think I've fallen out of
your favour."

"Very well, Joe," said I; "have your own way, if you like. I'll not
spare you if you do anything to vex me; only remember, my good fellow,
that whatever I may say will only be said to humour you."

"That's all right, sir; and thank ye kindly. There's just one thing
more I'd like to say, sir, and then we'd better stop talkin'. It's just
this. Don't you try to have any talk with me on the quiet like. You
leave everything to me, sir, and as soon as I've found out anything I'll
make a chance to let you know, somehow."

And so this remarkable conversation ended. Could there possibly be
anything in Joe's idea? The men seemed to be perfectly comfortable and
contented; they appeared to desire nothing in the way of food or
accommodation, beyond what they already possessed; they had not grumbled
or made any complaint; what could they be plotting to obtain? I asked
myself this question over and over again, and could find no answer to
it; notwithstanding which, Joe's communication made me feel exceedingly
uneasy and anxious; so much so that, when I turned in, I found it quite
impossible to get to sleep.

It may be readily imagined that when next I had an opportunity to
observe the men I watched them, individually and collectively, most
closely; yet, beyond the trivial circumstance that conversation always
ceased if I happened to approach, I could detect nothing in the men's
demeanour to lend the slightest colour to Joe's supposition. True, two
or three of them--the Frenchman, the Portuguese, and the German, for
instance--now impressed me as being scarcely so civil in their behaviour
as they had been when they first joined the ship; but that, after all,
might be only my fancy; and, if it were not, one hardly looks for such
good behaviour from foreigners as one is wont to receive from
Englishmen.

As for Joe Martin, he began his operations bright and early on the
morning following his conversation with me. He was now the ship's
carpenter, and in that capacity he had received orders on the previous
day to fit a new set of stern-sheets in the port quarter-boat. This job
he began the first thing in the morning, swinging her inboard and
lowering her to the deck for his greater convenience during the progress
of the work. This simple matter he managed so clums