“Sharkey to be hanged!” he cried.  “You don’t know, Master Agent, if they lack a hangman, do you?”

“Stand back!” cried the mate, whose outraged sense of discipline was even stronger than his interest at the news.  “I’ll pay that dollar, Captain Scarrow, with the lightest heart that ever I paid a wager yet.  How came the villain to be taken?”

“Why, as to that, he became more than his own comrades could abide, and they took such a horror of him that they would not have him on the ship.  So they marooned him upon the Little Mangles to the south of the Mysteriosa Bank, and there he was found by a Portobello trader, who brought him in.  There was talk of sending him to Jamaica to be tried, but our good little Governor, Sir Charles Ewan, would not hear of it.  ‘He’s my meat,’ said he, ‘and I claim the cooking of it.’  If you can stay till to-morrow morning at ten, you’ll see the joint swinging.”

“I wish I could,” said the captain, wistfully, “but I am sadly behind time now.  I should start with the evening tide.”

“That you can’t do,” said the agent with decision.  “The Governor is going back with you.”

“The Governor!”

“Yes.  He’s had a dispatch from Government to return without delay.  The fly-boat that brought it has gone on to Virginia.  So Sir Charles has been waiting for you, as I told him you were due before the rains.”

“Well, well!” cried the captain in some perplexity, “I’m a plain seaman, and I don’t know much of governors and baronets and their ways.  I don’t remember that I ever so much as spoke to one.  But if it’s in King George’s service, and he asks a cast in the Morning Star as far as London, I’ll do what I can for him.  There’s my own cabin he can have and welcome.  As to the cooking, it’s lobscouse and salmagundy six days in the week; but he can bring his own cook aboard with him if he thinks our galley too rough for his taste.”

“You need not trouble your mind, Captain Scarrow,” said the agent.  “Sir Charles is in weak health just now, only clear of a quartan ague, and it is likely he will keep his cabin most of the voyage.  Dr. Larousse said that he would have sunk had the hanging of Sharkey not put fresh life into him.  He has a great spirit in him, though, and you must not blame him if he is somewhat short in his speech.”

“He may say what he likes, and do what he likes, so long as he does not come athwart my hawse when I am working the ship,” said the captain.  “He is Governor of St. Kitt’s, but I am Governor of the Morning Star, and, by his leave, I must weigh with the first tide, for I owe a duty to my employer, just as he does to King George.”

“He can scarce be ready to-night, for he has many things to set in order before he leaves.”

“The early morning tide, then.”

“Very good.  I shall send his things aboard to-night; and he will follow them to-morrow early if I can prevail upon him to leave St. Kitt’s without seeing Sharkey do the rogue’s hornpipe.  His own orders were instant, so it may be that he will come at once.  It is likely that Dr. Larousse may attend him upon the journey.”