“Mr. Rogers,” he said, “I han’t read the Sherborne Mercury lately, but is—­is the war over?”

“No, nor likely to be.”

“But, Mr. Rogers, sir, either that there ship is a Dutchman or else I be.”

“Look at her flag, you old fool.”

“Never see’d the like of it.”

“That’s the flag of the Principality of Nibby-Gibby.  Ever heard of it?”

“Can’t say I have.”

“No more did I till the day before yesterday, and I won’t swear I’ve got it right yet.  But ’tis somewhere up the Baltic I understand.  That there ship—­her name, by the way, is the Burgomeister Van der Werf—­is bound up Channel with sugar from Jamaica—­with a licence.  Maybe you folks up to Polperro don’t know what that means?”

“I only know that, if I’d ran across her in the old Pride, I’d have clapped a crew on board and run her into a British port and no questions asked.”

Says Mr. Rogers, “If that’s the way you Polperro men keep abreast of Board of Trade regulations, it strikes me you might have done worse than lose your billet with the Pride of the West.”

In the time left before the waterman brought them alongside, Mr. Rogers explained, as well as he could, the new system (as it was then) of licences; by which the Government winked at neutral vessels carrying goods into the enemy’s ports, in spite of the blockade, and bringing us back Baltic timber for shipbuilding.

“But a Dutchman isn’ no neutral,” Captain Jacka objected.

“I did hear,” said Mr. Rogers, stroking his chin and looking sideways, “that these licences have their market-price, and that in Amsterdam just now it’s seven hundred rix-dollars.”

“Well-a-well, if the Board of Trade’s satisfied,” says Jacka, “it’s not for the likes of me to object.  But if I was a Christian ruler I should think twice afore invitin’ such a deal of hard swearin’.”

“You’ll find Captain Cornelisz a Lutheran,” Mr. Rogers assured him, “and a very sociable fellow, with the little English he can muster.”

Well, to make my story short, Jacka stepped on board and found the Dutch skipper monstrous polite and accommodating, though terrible sleepy, the reason being that, his mate falling sick at Kingston of the yellow fever, he had been forced to navigate his vessel home single-handed.  He owned up, too, that he had a poor head for ciphering, so that ’twas more by luck than good management he’d hit off the Channel at all.  At any rate he was glad enough of a chance to shift off responsibility and take a sound nap, and inside of half an hour the bargain was struck over a glass of hot schnapps.  Mr. Rogers shook hands and put off for shore again, and a boat went with him to fetch Jacka’s kit, which he’d left in the office.

At six o’clock the Van der Werf weighed anchor and headed out under easy canvas.  The wind outside was almost dead contrary, E. by N. and half E., and blowing a little under half a gale, but the skipper seemed in a hurry, and Jacka didn’t mind.