"Well, I believe Berry did make my father drink," admitted Denham, reluctantly. "He was always hovering round. But so was Anchor, for the matter of that. He drank also." "And was Fairy Fan anywhere in the galley?" asked Eustace. "Yes," said Tamaroo, who seemed to know the lady by that name. "She is the niece of Berry." "Oh!" said Frank, "then she really is the niece?" "Oh, certainly. The daughter of his sister, and a very wicked woman." "You don't need to add that last," put in Eustace. "I know how she treated poor Anchor. But go on with the story." "I must begin at the beginning, then," said Tamaroo, and cleared his throat. "I need not be very particular as to time," he said, "as the dates are all in the papers here. I'll just tell you the story as shortly as possible, and then you can read it at leisure for yourselves." "That's all right," said Frank. "Go on. I am impatient." "I am a very old man," continued Tamaroo. "You mightn't believe it, but I am over eighty. In my youth I was a slave on a plantation near New Orleans. I was wickedly treated by a brutal master, and Mr. Lancaster, seeing me being flogged one day, bought me out of pity. I was not very young then, but I was strong, and Mr. Lancaster found that I could work for him. I did. Heaven bless him!" said Tamaroo, with emotion. "He was a good friend to me. He set me free, and he sent me to school, where I learnt to talk as I do. Afterwards, when old, I went to a negro college and learnt still more. But when Mr. Lancaster bought me I was very ignorant. He was a handsome young man then, and fond of roving. He took me with him to the Californian diggings, and we had a wild time. It was there that we first met Captain Berry." "What is his real name?" asked Eustace. "I don't know; he had so many. But he was originally a sailor. I think his true name was Berry, as he used that oftener than the others, and always when he was well off. When in difficulties he called himself by other names." "Such as Sakers, at San Francisco," murmured Eustace. "Ah! that was because he took to the sea again and lost a schooner in the South Seas. But when my master met him he was called Banjo Berry, because he played so well on that instrument. The name took his fancy, and he kept it." "And anything else he could lay his hands on," said Denham. "I've heard him twang the banjo, and he can scrape a bit." "Berry and my master got on very well, and were always together. I did not like him myself, and warned Mr. Lancaster against him, but my master would always have his own way. Then Mr. Denham came." "My father?" said Natty, looking interested.