“She is owned by a friend of mine who lives at Shadwell. I was thinking all the way home of the _Black Watch_ as the ship for my purpose, and strangely enough, among the vessels lying near me in the Pool when I brought up was this brig. In London I shipped the English sailors we have on board and sailed for Amsterdam at the request of Tulp, who desired to victual and equip the ship himself. He put Van Laar upon me, on some friend’s recommendation, and the remainder of the hands--much too few, but the spirit of Rebecca Sweers sweats like a demon in Tulp when there is a stiver to be saved--I shipped at Amsterdam.” “But will not this be strictly what the longshoremen would term a salvage job?” “I do not intend that it shall be a salvage job. What? Deliver up the dollars to the Dutch or British Government and be put off with an award that would scarce do more than pay wages?” “You mean to run the stuff?” He nodded. “There is time enough to talk over that,” said he; “and yet perhaps it’s right I should tell you that Tulp and I have arranged for the running of the dollars so that we shall forfeit not one farthing.” “Well, I heartily wish you joy of your discovery,” said I. “This voyage will be your last, no doubt, if the dollars are still where you saw them.” I looked at a little clock that was ticking over a table; it was a quarter after eleven. I then looked at the small scuttle or window which swung with regular oscillations out of the flash of the flying foam into the light of the blowing morning. I then looked at Galloon, and wondered quietly within myself how long it would take me to get home; for the speeding of the brig was continuous; the heave of the sea that rushed her forward was full of the weight of a sort of weather that my experience assured me was not going to fail us on a sudden. When, then, was I going to get home? and while I kept my eyes fastened upon Galloon, I mused with the velocity of thought upon my uncle Captain Round; upon my adventure with the press-gang; upon the _Royal Brunswicker_, and her arrival in the Thames; upon my little property in the cabin I had occupied aboard her, and on the wages which Captain Spalding owed me. Greaves glanced at the clock at which I had looked. He then said, “Will you be interested to know how Mynheer Tulp proposes to divide the money?” I begged him to acquaint me with Tulp’s proposal. “There are five hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” said Greaves. “Of this money the ship takes half. For ship read Tulp; Tulp’s share, therefore, is two hundred and seventy thousand dollars or fifty-five thousand pounds.” “These are big figures,” said I. “They slide glibly from the tongue. I suppose a man could behold another fellow’s fifty-five thousand pounds without feeling faint; but call a poor sailor into a room and show him fifty-five thousand pounds in gold and tell him it is his, and I believe you would find a large dose of rum the next thing to be done with him.”