“Well, well,” said Cap’n Joe in astonishment.  “Who’d o’ thought it!  An’ who’d ever o’ thought as I’d find my long-lost brother in Zog’s enchanted castle full fifty fathoms deep down in the wet, wet water!”

“Why, as fer that,” replied Cap’n Bill, “it’s you as is the long-lost brother, not me.  You an’ your ship disappeared many a year ago, an’ ain’t never been heard of since, while, as you see, I’m livin’ on earth yet.”

“You don’t look it to all appearances,” remarked Cap’n Joe in a reflective tone of voice.  “But I’ll agree it’s many a year since I saw the top o’ the water, an’ I’m not expectin’ to ever tramp on dry land again.”

“Are you dead, or drownded, or what?” asked Cap’n Bill.

“Neither one nor t’other,” was the answer.  “But Zog gave me gills so’s I could live in the water like fishes do, an’ if I got on land I couldn’t breathe air any more’n a fish out o’ water can.  So I guess as long as I live, I’ll hev to stay down here.”

“Do you like it?” asked Trot.

“Oh, I don’t objec’ much,” said Cap’n Joe.  “There ain’t much excitement here, fer we don’t catch a flock o’ mermaids ev’ry day, but the work is easy an’ the rations fair.  I might o’ been worse off, you know, for when my brig was wrecked, I’d ‘a’ gone to Davy Jones’s Locker if Zog hadn’t happened to find me an’ made me a fish.”

“You don’t look as much like a fish as Cap’n Bill does,” observed Trot.

“P’raps not,” said Cap’n Joe, “but I notice Bill ain’t got any gills an’ breathes like you an’ the mermaids does.  When he gets back to land, he’ll have his two legs again an’ live in comfort breathin’ air.”

“I won’t have two legs,” asserted Cap’n Bill, “for when I’m on earth I’m fitted with one wooden leg, jes’ the same as you are, Joe.”

“Oh, I hadn’t heard o’ that, Bill, but I’m not surprised,” replied Brother Joe.  “Many a sailor gets to wear a wooden leg in time.  Mine’s hick’ry.”

“So’s mine,” said Cap’n Bill with a air of pride.  “I’m glad I’ve run across you, Joe, for I often wondered what had become of you.  Seems too bad, though, to have to spend all your life under water.”

“What’s the odds?” asked Cap’n Joe.  “I never could keep away from the water since I was a boy, an’ there’s more dangers to be met floatin’ on it than there is soakin’ in it.  An’ one other thing pleases me when I think on it:  I’m parted from my wife, a mighty good woman with a tongue like a two-edge sword, an’ my pore widder’ll get the insurance money an’ live happy.  As fer me, Bill, I’m a good deal happier than I was when she kep’ scoldin’ me from mornin’ to night every minute I was home.”

“Is Zog a kind master?” asked Trot.

“I can’t say he’s kind,” replied Cap’n Joe, “for he’s as near a devil as any livin’ critter can be.  He grumbles an’ growls in his soft voice all day, an’ hates himself an’ everybody else.  But I don’t see much of him.  There’s so many of us slaves here that Zog don’t pay much attention to us, an’ we have a pretty good time when the ol’ magician is shut up in his den, as he mostly is.”