“I am Alderman Van Beverout,” muttered the object of this new attack, between his teeth, though apparently but half-disposed to notice one who set so little bounds to his discourse. “I beg a thousand pardons!” returned the strange seaman, with a grave inclination of his body. “The stolidity of your worship’s countenance deceived me. It may be, indeed, unreasonable to expect any Alderman to know the position of the Atlantic Ocean! And yet, gentlemen, on the honor of a man who has seen much salt water in his time, I do assure you the sea, I speak of, is actually there. If there be anything on it, or in it, that should not in reason be so, this worthy commander of the periagua will let us know the rest.” “A wood-boat from the inlet says, the ‘Skimmer of the Seas’ was lately seen standing along the coast,” returned the ferry-man, in the tone of one who is certain of delivering matter of general interest. “Your true sea-dog, who runs in and out of inlets, is a man for marvels!” coolly observed the stranger. “They know the color of the sea at night, and are for ever steering in the wind’s eye in search of adventures. I wonder, more of them are not kept at making almanacs! There was a mistake, concerning a thunder-storm, in the last I bought, and all for the want of proper science. And pray, friend, who is this ‘Skimmer of the Seas,’ that is said to be running after his needle, like a tailor who has found a hole in his neighbor’s coat?” “The witches may tell! I only know that such a rover there is, and that he is here to-day, and there to-morrow. Some say, it is only a craft of mist, that skims the top of the seas, like a sailing water-fowl, and others think it is the sprite of a vessel that was rifled and burnt by Kidd, in the Indian Ocean, looking for its gold and the killed. I saw him once, myself, but the distance was so great, and his manœuvres so unnatural, that I could hardly give a good account of his hull, or rig.” “This is matter that don’t get into the log every watch! Whereaway, or in what seas, didst meet the thing?” “’Twas off the Branch. We were fishing in thick weather, and when the mist lifted, a little, there was a craft seen standing in-shore, running like a race-horse; but while we got our anchor, she had made a league of offing, on the other tack!” “A certain proof of either her, or your, activity! But what might have been the form and shape of your fly-away?” “Nothing determined. To one she seemed a full-rigged and booming ship; another took her for a Bermudian scudder, while to me she had the look of twenty periaguas built into a single craft. It is well known, however, that a West-Indiaman went to sea that night, and, though it is now three years, no tidings of her, or her crew, have ever come to any in York. I have never gone upon the banks to fish since that day, in thick weather.”