Whereat Stevey Todd exclaimed, "_There_ was a ship!" and UncleAbimelech piped up again, singing these singular words:

"There was a ship In Bailey's Slip. 0ne evil day We sailed away From Bailey's Slip We sailed away, with Captain Clyde, An very old, very old man with a copper hide, In the _Hebe Maitland_ sailed, Hooroar! And fetched the coast of Ecuador."

"Aye," exclaimed Captain Tom. "Those were Kid Sadler's verses. There'smany of 'em that Abe can say over, and he can glue a tune to 'emwell, for he's got that kind of a memory that's loose, but stringyand long, and he always had. There's only Abe and Stevey Todd and meleft of the _Hebe Maitland's_ crew, unless Sadler and LittleIrish maybe, for I left them in Burmah, and they may be there. Butwhat I sometimes was going to say, Pemberton, is, I made a mistake somewhere."

"Why," exclaimed Pemberton, "there you may be right."

"For I sometimes was that kind of young one," the captain went on, "which ifhe's blown up with dynamite, he comes down remarking it's breezy upthere. I sometimes was that careless."