"Well," said old Jeff, as we were stowing the anchors, "I reckon that's the last we'll see of Turkeywarner this v'y'ge. I think the old man'll work off to the westward, and finally go down to 'the Groups.'" "What makes you think so?" said I. "Why, the old man as good as told _me_ before we left home that he should work down that way. He never was down there before nor _I_ neither. _I've_ been three v'y'ges with the old man, and _we've_ always got our oil on Peru, and Chili, and the Galleypaguses. We never went no further'n the off-shore ground." "Why should he go so far out of his old tracks where he has always been successful?" I inquired. "Well, you see, Father Grafton he's been down there last voyage, and Mr. Dunham, too, and they have great faith in the 'Groups,' and that starts the old man. Another thing makes me think so; he's fetched out a big stock of tobacker this v'y'ge. I never knew him to have so much before, and he hasn't sold a pound of it yet. It's all there in the run, and that means he's keepin it to trade down among the 'Groups.' He hasn't said nothin' to _me_ about it lately, though; I've kept thinking he would,' cause he generally lets _me_ know beforehand where he's going." It was one of Jeff's harmless peculiarities to pretend to considerable knowledge of cabinet secrets, and to affect to be "high in the confidence of the administration," as the newspaper correspondents have it. "Well," said he, "Burley he's given us the slip and I reckon nobody'll mourn much about the loss of him. I must say I got disappointed in that man. I thought he was a good sailor man, and all I was fearful of was that he would do something desprit. I thought he had courage enough to make good his words. But it turned out that he was more of a coward than _I_ am, and that's needless," said Jeff with a grin; "and as for his duty, he was neither sailor nor soger." "He'll go on board of some other ship," said I, "where he can blow his gas for a while, but he wont wear well anywhere." "No," said Jeff, "only as long as it takes to find him out and take his measure. This Peter that came aboard to-day is a smart-looking Kanaka, but _I_ don't think much of Kanakas anyhow." Here came in the prejudice of color again. "But I never told you, did I," continued Jeff, with a _greenish_ kind of blush, "that I ran away myself in Turkeywarner, once?" "No," I answered. "I thought you were a fixture of the ship you sailed in."