I was startled. It seemed as if the old African were standing at my shoulder, saying, "What did Ah told you, hey?" The cook had used almost those very words. Where, I wondered, had he got them? It was almost uncanny. "No, sir," came the reply,--it was poor Bill Hayden's voice,--"no, sir, I didn't say that. I said--" "Well, what _did_ you say? Speak up!" "Why, sir, it--well, it wasn't that, I know. I wouldn't never ha' said that. I--well, sir, it sounded something like that, I got to admit--I--I ain't so good at remembering, sir, as I might be." The shadowy figures moved closer together. "You'll admit, then, that it _sounded_ like that?" There was the thud of a quick blow. "I'll show you. I don't care what you _said_, as long as that was what you _meant_. Take that! I'll show you." "Oh!--I--that's just it, sir, don't hit me!--It may have sounded like that, but--Oh!--it never meant anything like that. I can't remember just how the words was put together--I ain't so good at remembering but--Oh!--" The scene made me feel sick, it was so brutal; yet there was nothing that the rest of us could do to stop it. Captain Falk was in command of the ship. I heard a mild laugh that filled me with rage. "That's the way to make 'em take back their talk, captain. Give him a good one," said the mild voice. "He ain't the only one that 'll be better for a sound beating." There was a scuffle of footsteps, then I heard Bill cry out, "Oh--oh!--oh!" Suddenly a man broke from the group and fled along the deck. "Come back here, you scoundrel!" the captain cried with vile oaths; "come back here, or I swear I'll seize you up and lash you to a bloody pulp." The fugitive now stood in the bow, trembling, and faced those who were approaching him. "Don't," he cried piteously, "I didn't go to do nothing." "Oh, no, not you!" said the mild voice, followed by a mild laugh. "He didn't do nothing, captain." "Not he!" Captain Falk muttered. "I'll show him who's captain here." There was no escape for the unfortunate man. They closed in on him and roughly dragged him from his retreat straight aft to the quarter-deck, and there I heard their brief discussion. "Hadn't you better call up the men, captain?" asked the mild voice. "It'll do 'em good, I'll warrant you." "No," the captain replied, hotly. "This is a personal affair. Strip him and seize him up." I heard nothing more for a few minutes, but I could see them moving about, and presently I distinguished Bill's bare back and arms as they spread-eagled him to the rigging. Then the rope whistled in the air and Bill moaned. Unable to endure the sight, I was turning away, when some one coming from the cabin broke in upon the scene. "Well," said Roger Hamlin, "what's all this about?" Roger's calm voice and composed manner were so characteristic of him that for the moment I could almost imagine myself at home in Salem and merely passing him on the street.