that I write of what I saw, and that is not altered by a miscalled spar or a misunderstood manouvre. But now I am aboard a craft I handle for myself, and must make shift to handle a second time with this frail pen.

The hen-coop was some six feet long, by eighteen or twenty inches in breadth and depth. It was simply a long box with bars in lieu of a lid; but it was very strongly built.

I recognized it as one of two which had stood lashed against either rail of the Lady Jermyn’s poop; there the


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may follow; but by the God that made you, look alive! Mr. Arnott - Mr. McClellan - man them boats and lower away. You can’t get quit o’ the ship too soon, an’ I don’t mind tellin’ you why. I’ll tell you the worst, an’ then you’ll know. There’s been a lot o’ gossip goin’, gossip about my cargo. I give


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