Shortly after the five verses had been privately printed for his friends on a single slip, Allison conceived the rather daring idea of injecting the trace of a woman on board the Derelict which up to this time he had very closely developed in the Stevensonian spirit. While there was no woman in "Treasure Island," he proved to himself by analysis that his new thought would do no violence to Stevenson's idea, because Billy Bones' song was a reminiscence of _his own past_ and not of Treasure Island. Hence the trace of a woman, skillfully injected, might be permissible. Here, too, his analysis gave him the melancholy tone--of which Poe speaks as so highly desirable--greatly accentuated by doubt of whether she was "wench" or "maid," and a further possible incentive for the extermination of the whole ship's list. This verse[7] has undergone little change since the woman trace was first injected: More we saw, through the stern-light screen-- Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Chartings ondoubt where a woman had been-- Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! A flimsy shift on a bunker cot, With a dagger-slot in the bosom spot And the lace stiff-dry in a purplish blot. Now whether wench Or a shuddering maid, She dared the knife And she took the blade. By God! She was stuff for a plucky jade-- Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! [7] Reproduced in facsimile. There were certain niceties of word adjustment to follow as for instance the substitution of "a thin dirk-slot" for "a dagger-slot," the word "thin" carrying a keen mental impression of a snaky, hissing sound-sensation as the idea unfolded of the dirk slipping through the flimsy fabric of the shift, cast on the bunker cot to remain the silent evidence of the tragedy. The very acme of touches came in the punctuation[8] of the concluding lines--pauses that emphasize with so much ingenuity the very question that lends the speculatively mournful cadence to the whole: Or was she wench ... Or some shuddering maid...? That dared the knife And that took the blade! And as a cap-sheaf came the thought of differentiating the whole verse[8] by an Italicized setting! That is almost the last word of the conception of poet-printer. [8] Reproduced in facsimile. The dogged persistency that Allison applied to the completion of this masterpiece has always won my deepest admiration. And the admiration of many others too, for this poem, first publicly printed in the Louisville _Courier-Journal_, has been reprinted in one form or another, in almost every newspaper in the country and has an honored place in many scrap books. What great and painstaking effort was encompassed in its composition only one can know even partly who has been privileged to "peep behind the scenes" at the "properties of the literary _histrio_"--the manuscript notes and memoranda, a few of which accompany this volume in facsimile. IF THERE _is_ CONTROVERSY!