"
The sailor looked searchingly at Ruthven and then continued:
"I hauled the canoe up and hid it in some bushes, and it were well
I did, for a short time afterwards a great--" and he paused. "Does
the hippypotybus live in them ere waters, young gents?"
"He does not, Jack," Ruthven said.
"Then it's clear," the sailor said, "that it wasn't a hippypotybus.
It must have been a seal."
"Yes, it might have been a seal," Ruthven said. "What did he do?"
"Well he just took a look at me, gents, winked with one eye, as much
as to say, 'I see you,' and went down again. There warn't nothing
else as he could do, was there?"
"It was the best thing he could do anyhow," Ruthven said.
"Well, gents, I lived there for about three weeks, and then a ship
comes along, homeward bound, and I goes out and hails her. At first
they thought as I was a native as had learned to speak English,
and it wasn't till they'd boiled me for three hours in the ship's
copper as they got at the color of my skin, and could believe as
I was English. So I came back here and found the old woman still
alive, and took to fishing again; but it was weeks and weeks before
I could get her or any one else to believe as I was Jack Perkins.
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