“Master Ethan,” said he, “I’m going to tell ye something that will surprise ye.”
Ethan looked into the grim, scarred face of Longsword and was astonished to see that it was anxious and troubled looking.
“In the second dog-watch I came on deck,” said the Irishman, “and the first person me two eyes fell upon as I took me foot from the top step of the ladder was--guess?”
“It was the brown man that listened at the window.”
“That’s what I should have said meself, jewel, if I hadn’t seen him as plain as day. And he had the crooked knife in his belt that I imagined him wid the other night on the Island Queen.”
“Are you quite positive it was the same man?”
“I’m as sure of it as I am that I am talking wid ye at this minute.”
“Sure he’s a sailor, so he is; the bos’en told me that he shipped on the day we sailed.”
“A brown fellow, eh?” mused the ship’s third officer. “Let me see! Oh, yes, I remember. He’s a Lascar, I think, and gave the name of Siki. I signed him and the master’s mate whom I told you about yesterday. They seem to be great cronies. Always to be found in odd corners, whispering away like all possessed.”
Ethan waited until he saw the Lascar with his own eyes before he was satisfied. Then he went to Captain Jones, and told him all that he knew about the man.
“So you think that this fellow, Siki, as he calls himself, had something to do with the attack upon the schooner in Delaware Bay?” said the commander sternly.
“I feel sure of it, sir; though of course I did not see him.”
“And you think that he was after the packet given you by Mr. Hancock?”
“Then he also shipped with us in the hope of still getting his hands upon it, somehow. I’ll have Simpson clap the villain in irons.”
Ethan hastily laid his hand upon the captain’s arm.
“See,” said he, pointing to the after battery, where the tawny Lascar was busying himself rubbing down one of the six-pounders under the direction of the gunner’s mate, “there he is, now. And I hardly think he’s the prime mover in the matter.”
“No,” said John Paul Jones, “it does not seem likely. He is more apt to be a subtle, deft-handed instrument, used by a superior mind.”
“Would it not be wise,” suggested Ethan, “for you to hold your hand a bit longer; we might also be able to capture the master as well as the man.”
