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“She were an odd craft, built for a crew of one man only. For Skipper Bill hadn’t much trust in any man ‘cept hisself. Once when he were full o’ French brandy he told me that when he were working on t’ cliffs in England, he found out that his mate were going to ‘squeal,’ as he called it, about his leaving, so he’d given him such a kick behind when he weren’t expecting it that no one had ever heard from him since. He meant, we reckoned, that t’ poor fellow had fell off t’ bill into t’ sea.

“When he built that boat he were thinking already that he might have to leave sudden, and perhaps a crew wouldn’t be willing to, even if he got one. So he trimmed his teller lanyards to run forrard, so as he could steer before t’ foremast, and handle t’ headsheets hisself going to windward, and at t’ same time keep a lookout for ice and slob.

“Many’s t’ time I’ve seen him sailing along with ne’er a watch on deck at all, he being below aft steering by compass from t’ locker, with t’ tiller lines leading down the companion hatch.

“I minds one fall that he brought in a big cask o’ rum and a lot o’ brandy, which he were going to sell to us folk. But Father wouldn’t stand for that. He said that he’d seen too much of it when he were young to want any more lying round. We lads found it only fun to go over and knock t’ heads in, and hear what old Portland had to say about we.

“One day, however, a fellow all dressed in blue came down from St. John’s to take he along, and before Bill knew it t’ boat were alongside his craft and t’ man calling he to come ashore. Bill knowed what he were at once. He’d had experience. ‘All right, Officer,’ he said, ‘I’ll just get my coat and come along,’ But when he come up on deck he had a barrel of gunpowder all open and a box of matches in his hand. ‘Come on, now,’ he shouted with an oath, ‘let’s all go to hell together.’ But just as soon as ever t’ small boat backed off, he runs forrard and slips his cable, and was off before t’ wind before youse could say ‘Jack Robinson.’

“He always left his mainsail up, Skipper Bill did. ‘Better be sure than sorry’ was a rule he always told us were his religion.

“T’ policeman seemed in two minds about following t’ boat, but when she rounded Deadman’s Cape, he rows back ashore. I minds running up t’ hill to watch where Skipper Bill would go, but he stood right on across for t’ Larbadore. T’ policeman said that that weren’t his beat; and he looked glad enough that it weren’t neither. Old Portland never came back to Sleepy Cove to live. He just left everything standing–which were mostly only what he couldn’t take away with him anyhow.

“That fall one of t’ Frenchmen stowed away in t’ woods when their ship was getting ready for home. His name was Louis Marteau; and his vessel had no sooner gone than in he goes and lives in Bill’s house across t’ cove. Things got missing again that winter, and though Father had to feed him, seeing that he hadn’t been able to steal a diet, we lads give him notice to quit in t’ spring. As he didn’t show no signs of moving, us just put a couple of big trees for shoes under t’ house, and ran it and Louis, too, out onto t’ ice as far as t’ cape–a matter of two miles or more.

“So us thought us had done with both of them, and a good riddance too; but when t’ spring opened t’ Frenchman wrote up to t’ English man-o’-war captain to come in and find out about t’ things what they’d lost. So one day in comes t’ big ship and anchors right alongside in our bay. T’ very first man to come rowing across and go aboard to see what he could get, I reckon, was Louis Marteau. When t’ captain asked him what he wanted, he said that he had come over to ask him to send a boat to t’ cape to search his rooms, as t’ neighbours blamed he for having taken their things.