"Aye, that it be." Ned's puzzled tone was sharper now and he looked up at Chris and then out to the pirate vessel. "What're ye aimin' at now, me lad, eh?" Ned asked. "What's in your mind?" "Just tell me what ships you know whose name is not painted on but set in carved letters, Ned," Chris said, and he lowered his glass and looked down. [Illustration] Their conversation, in the silence, had had some quality of excitement in it that had been caught by the others, for when Chris glanced down he saw half the ship's company knotted around the base of the tree, and a half-circle of faces turned up to his, along with Ned's. Ned's face puckered with effort for a few moments, as he muttered: "Let me see, now. There's the _Southerner_--no, that's painted on, or the _Priscilla Drew_--no; that's painted too." He turned, searching the faces of his friends. "Come, boys, what ship has carved letters for her name, not painted ones? Where's a better memory nor mine?" The Captain and Mr. Finney came to join the crowd, standing back in the shadow of the palm grove. Both men were listening attentively. It was Bowie who finally spoke up slowly, as if unwillingly. "There's only one ship that ever I did see with carven letters on her side, and that was Chew's ship, the _Venture_." He was surrounded at once by a low murmur of assent from all sides. "Aye aye!" "That be so!" "'Tis so!" Chris from his higher perch, pointed an accusing finger out to sea. "Look then, for there's your same ship! The _Venture_ and the _Vulture_ are one and the same! Here--take my glass," he cried handing it down. "See the two second letters--they are just a bit aslant. Weeks ago, at home, I thought it seemed strange that the _E_ and the _N_ looked loose. But loose they are! Once at sea they're changed--bolted in, maybe, I don't know how--and there's your merchant ship at home and pirate ship at sea!" The men turned, wonderingly but angrily too, for the remembrance of what Zachary Heigh had tried to do, and so nearly succeeded in, rankled, and they now began to understand many things. Voices began to rise dangerously high in the growing ill-feeling. "Ah--the dirty dog--" "_And_ his friend with the airs!" "Have we then been harboring the like of him at home?" "Aye--to let him go free to scuttle the next fine ship, take all her cargo, and leave her valiant men to drown!" The Captain came forward, his hands upraised. "How-now, men, be still! We are here to see what may take place, but if your voices should carry, as well they may, over the water, we should have little chance of it. Do you be still and watchful." A low cry came from Amos, who had not taken his eyes from the sea. "Look! Around the point! Here comes another ship--looks like that was what the ol' blackbird was a-waiting for!"