"Oh, here is the grains," said the captain, as Oakum came along with an implement something like an eel spear, or the trident Neptune is represented as carrying, except that in this case, instead of three, it was furnished with five sharp barbed teeth, and a thin, strong cord was attached to the middle of the shaft. "Would you like to try?" he continued, turning to Tonio, who stood close at hand. "Yes, I'll try," said the mulatto, in a guttural voice. "Let him have the grains, Oakum," said the captain, to the great disappointment of several of the men. "These fellows are, some of them, very clever this way." The mulatto eagerly took the spear, fastened the cord around his wrist, and, followed by several of the men, went forward to the bowsprit, climbed out, and, descending, stood bare-footed on one of the stays, bending down with the weapon poised ready to dart it at the first likely fish that came within range. "I am all impatient to hear more," said Dutch, still watching the fish that played about in the blue water. "And I am all impatient to find out more," said the captain; "but we must be patient." "Then you know nothing?" "Nothing whatever. I only feel sure that the Cuban is at work, trying to checkmate us; and, of course, I suspect. Now, I want your help." "Of course," replied Dutch, both speaking more freely, for the attention of all was taken up now with the scene being enacted in the bows of the swift craft. "I feel sure that you must be right; but I have had so much to think of that these things did not trouble me. He must have started, and will get there before us." "I don't think that possible," said the captain, "but I have thought so." "But suppose that he has some of his men on board, scoundrels in his own pay." "That is far more likely," said the captain; "and that is why I am so careful." "Of course, that must be it," exclaimed Dutch. "The villain! He bribed your crew to desert, and has supplied others--his own miscreants." "That is one thing I suspect." "That last party there--the mulatto and the black." "That is the most natural supposition at the first blush; but the men are all strangers, and for this very reason I am half disposed to think it was the first lot. One is so disposed to judge wrongly." "You are right," said Dutch, thoughtfully, "and we have no common plotter to deal with. You remember the man who wanted to hide an important letter from the French spies?" "No," said the captain, watching him intently. "What did he do?" "He placed the letter somewhere so as they should not find it, knowing full well that they would come and ransack his chambers as soon as his back was turned." "Well," said the captain, impatiently. "Well, the spies of the police came; and in his absence searched the place in every direction, even trying the legs of the chairs and tables to see if the document was rolled up and plugged in one of them; but they gave up in despair, finding nothing."