"What the devil's that to you?" retorted Mr Tregaskis. But a moment later he gasped and all but dropped the pipe from his mouth. "Good Lord!" "Took me for a stranger, hey?" The mate stared, slowly passing a hand across his chin as though to make sure of his own beard. "What indooced 'ee?" "When you're in Rome," said Captain Cai, with a somewhat forced nonchalance, "you do as the Romans do." "Do they?" asked Mr Tregaskis vaguely. "Besides, we ain't," he objected after a moment. "Crew all right?" "Upstairs,"--this with a jerk of the thumb. "Hey? . . . But why? We don't pay off till Saturday, as you ought to know, for I told 'ee plain enough, an' also that the men could have any money advanced, in reason." "Come along and see," said the mate mysteriously. "I've been waitin' here on the look-out for 'ee." He led the way up the steps, along a twisting corridor and into the Collector's office, where, sure enough, the crew of the _Hannah Hoo_ were gathered. "Here's the Cap'n, boys!" he announced. "An' don't call me a liar, but take your time." The men--they were standing uneasily, with doffed hats, around a table in the centre of the room--gazed and drew a long breath. They continued to breathe hard while the Collector bustled forward from his desk and congratulated Captain Cai on a prosperous passage. "There's one thing about it," said Ben Price the bald-headed, at length breaking through the mortuary silence that reigned around the table; "it _do_ make partin' easier." "But what's here?" demanded Captain Cai, as his gaze fell upon a curious object that occupied the centre of the table. It was oblong: it was covered with a large red handkerchief: and, with the men grouped respectfully around, it suggested a miniature coffin draped and ready for committal to the deep. "Well, sir," answered Nat Berry, who was generally reckoned the wag of the ship, "it might pass, by its look, for a concealment o' birth. But it ain't. It's a testimonial." "A what?" But here the mate--who had been standing for some moments on one leg-- suddenly cleared his throat. "Cap'n Hocken," said he in a strained unnatural voice, "we the undersigned, bein' mate and crew of the _Hannah Hoo_ barquentine--" "Be this an affidavit?"