But that cad of an overseer on my deck
wouldn't unloose our chains and give us a chance. He always said that we'd all
he set free after a battle, but we never were; We never were." Charlie shook
his head mournfully.
"What a scoundrel!"
"I should say he was. He never gave us enough to eat, and sometimes we were so
thirsty that we used to drink salt-water. I can taste that salt-water still.''
"Now tell me something about the harbor where the fight was fought."
"I didn't dream about that. I know it was a harbor, though; because we were
tied up to a ring on a white wall and all the face of the stone under water
was covered with wood to prevent our ram getting chipped when the tide made us
rock."
"That's curious. Our hero commanded the galley? Didn't he?"
"Didn't he just! He stood by the bows and shouted like a good 'un. He was the
man who killed the overseer."
"But you were all drowned together, Charlie, weren't you?"
"I can't make that fit quite," he said with a puzzled look. "The galley must
have gone down with all hands and yet I fancy that the hero went on living
afterward. Perhaps he climbed into the attacking ship. I wouldn't see that, of
course. I was dead, you know."
He shivered slightly and protested that he could remember no more.
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