“Hitch that block to a halyard, youngster,” said the man.

Desmond was on the point of refusing; the man, he thought, might at least have apologized:  but reflecting that a refusal would entail a complaint to the captain, and a subsequent flogging, he bit his lips, fastened the block, and went on his way.

“’Tis my belief ’twas no accident,” said Bulger afterwards.  “I may be wrong, but Parmiter bears a grudge against you.  And he and that there Mr. Diggle is too thick by half.  I never could make out why Diggle diddled you about that supercargo business; he don’t mean you no kindness, you may be sure; and when you see two villains like him and Parmiter puttin’ their heads together, look out for squalls, that’s what I say.”

Desmond was inclined to laugh; the idea seemed preposterous.

“Why are you so suspicious of Mr. Diggle?” he said.  “He has not kept his promise, that’s true, and I am sorry enough I ever listened to him.  But that doesn’t prove him to be an out-and-out villain.  I’ve noticed that you keep out of his way.  Do you know anything of him?  Speak out plainly, man.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what I knows about him.”

He settled himself against the mast, gave a final polish to his hook with holystone, and using the hook every now and then to punctuate his narrative, began.

“Let me see, ‘twas a matter o’ three years ago.  I was bo’sun on the Swallow, a spanker she was, chartered by the Company, London to Calcutta.  There was none of the doldrums that trip, dodged ’em fair an’ square; a topsail breeze to the Cape, and then the fust of the monsoon to the Hugli.  We lay maybe a couple of months at Calcutta, when what should I do but take aboard a full dose of the cramp, just as the Swallow was in a manner of speakin’ on the wing.  Not but what it sarved me right, for what business had I at my time of life to be wastin’ shore leave by poppin’ at little dicky birds in the dirty slimy jheels, as they call ’em, round about Calcutta!

“Well, I was put ashore, as was on’y natural, and ’twas a marvel I pulled through—­for it en’t many as take the cramp in Bengal and live to tell it.  The Company, I’ll say that for ’em, was very kind; I had the best o’ nussin’ and vittles; but when I found my legs again there I was, as one might say, high and dry, for there was no Company’s ship ready to sail.  So I got leave to sign on a country ship, bound for Canton; and we dropped down the Hugli with enough opium on board to buy up the lord mayor and a baker’s dozen of aldermen.

“Nearly half a mile astern was three small country ships, such as might creep round the coast to Chittagong, dodgin’ the pirates o’ the Sandarbands if they was lucky, and gettin’ their weazands slit if they wasn’t.  They drew less water than us, and was generally handier in the river, which is uncommon full of shoals and sandbanks; but for all that I remember they was still maybe