“There!” cried Captain Murdock. “Do you believe me now? And look at her water-line. She’s filled clear full.”
“Yes,” said Eliphalet, “I believe you now.”
But he did not move from the window. He continued to look at the ship. The tide was taking her in and she seemed to struggle against it, catching at the wind and losing it again. There she was, a fast ship such as Eliphalet liked to buy, but I knew what she was. Her speed betrayed her, and the rake of her masts that gave her speed. If I had not known I might have thought she was a pretty sight, but now the thought of her turned me sick, for I seemed to hear the sound that was coming from her hatches and to smell the stench that filled her deck.
She was coming ashore. She would be beached in half an hour. If there was ever retribution,
