"Not on him," replied Gawthrop. "Look 'ere," said Tom, "if you'll tell us the troof, I'll stand you a drop of rum. I've a nip left. And this is a teetotal ship, this is." He could not conceive any man refusing such a bribe. And Gawthrop, in spite of everything, could hardly help laughing at Hunt's face. He took the rum partly to have an excuse for telling the story. It was the wisest thing to be friends with every one, and after all, if he was out of the running for a time, so was Hunt. "Well," said Gawthrop, "I and my cheerful friend over there are very great friends indeed. But I wanted him out of San Francisco for a time, for reasons. And I got Shanghai Smith to arrange it." "_We_ know him," said the crowd eagerly. "Oh yes, we know him!" "I stayed in 'is 'ouse." "So did I." "Shut up and let him tell us." And Hunt by now was all alone on the starboard side. Even old Shadwell came across to hear the yarn. "Another friend of mine suggested it," said Gawthrop, "and fixed it up for me." "That was Gardiner," said Hunt. "It was," said Gawthrop, "and I paid a thousand dollars to have Mr. Hunt put here." "That's what _I_ paid to have you put here," said Hunt. "A friend of mine put me up to it." "That was Gardiner," said Gawthrop. "It was," said Hunt. "And that's why we're both here," said Gawthrop, and his aspect was at once so melancholy and so comic that all hands shrieked with laughter. Old Shadwell creaked like the cheep of a block. "But what'd this hyer Gardiner to do with the show?" asked the only American in the crew. "It looks like as if he played the pair of you for suckers." "You hear that, Hunt?" "I hear," said Hunt sulkily. "Wait till I see him." "You ain't told us hall," said Shadwell, with a gloomy air of suspicion. "I knows somethin' of life, and somethin' about women; and there was a woman in this." "Mr. Shadwell is right," said Gawthrop. "I was to have taken her for a drive this morning," said Hunt; "and a pretty sort of a man I shall look, not turning up." "Never mind," said Gawthrop. "I was to have taken her out this afternoon." Old Shadwell nodded gloomily. "What 'ave I often told you about 'em, boys!" he said. "This proves it. A woman's like a cat with nine lives, and nine sorts of dispositions, and if she don't satisfy 'em with nine sort of man fool she ain't happy. I've know them as nine wouldn't satisfy. And they're all the same; there's different nations of men, but women is all one nation. You can bet your boots, you two fellers, that your girl is out with some one else. This here v'yge will do you good if it rams that into you." He turned to the others. "D'ye believe what this young feller has told you?" They said they did. Shadwell turned again to Gawthrop.