"'What's them things for?' axed the first planter, in the Spanish lingo.
"'Them's skimmers,' says Cap'n Roebuck, knowin' it warn't no manner o' use to try to explain the exact truth to a man what ain't never seed snow, or knowed there was a zero mark on the almanack.
"He grabbed up one o' them warmin' pans and made a swing with it like you'd use a crab-net. 'See! See!' says the dons. 'Skim-a da merlasses.' That's Spanish for 'Yes, yes! skim the merlasses,'" explained Kuk, seriously.
"'But what's the cover for?' axed the don. 'Ye don't hafter have no cover,' says Cap'n Roebuck, and he yanks the cover off the warmin' pan an' throws it away.
"And there them dons had the finest merlasses dipper that ever went inter the islan's. Cap'n Roebuck seen their eyes snap an' put a good, stiff price on the things, and inside of a week there warn't a warmin' pan left on the _Spankin' Sal_.
"Then," pursued the clam digger, "we stowed away in our upper holt goods what would bring a fancy price at Rio, and laid our course for the Amazon.
"But we was all hands mighty worritted," admitted Kuk, lowering his voice mysteriously. "Ye see, ye never could tell in them old days, an' in the West Injies, who it was safe to trust, an' who it was safe ter _dis_-trust.
"Yer see, so many of them snaky Spanish planters was hand an' glove with the pi-_rats_. And ev'rybody on the island knowed the _Spankin' Sal_ was takin' away a great treasure that had been exchanged for them warmin' pans. We was a fair mark, as ye might say, for them pi-_rats_."
"Oh!" gasped Dot, hugging her Alice-doll the tighter.
"How much treasure was there, Mr. Kuk?" asked the ever-practical Tess.
"A chist full," announced the clam digger without a moment's hesitation. "A reg'lar treasure-chist full. All them planters hadn't had ready cash money to pay for the warmin' pans, and they'd give in exchange di'monds and other jools--and the exchange rates for American money was high anyway. So the _Spankin' Sal_ was a mighty good ketch if the pi-_rats_ ketched her.
"So, when we sailed from Porto Rico we kep' a weather eye open for black-painted schooners with rakin' masts an' skulls and shinbones on their flags. When we seed them signs we'd know they was pi-_rats_," declared Kuk, gravely.