"
"As to who they are or were," the captain answered, puffing thoughtfully
at his pipe, "that is by no means easy to say. Our last port was
Kurrachee, in the north of India, and there we took them aboard as
passengers for Glasgow. Ram Singh was the name of the younger, and it
is only with him that I have come in contact, but they all appeared to
be quiet, inoffensive gentlemen. I never inquired their business, but I
should judge that they were Parsee merchants from Hyderabad whose trade
took them to Europe. I could never see why the crew should fear them,
and the mate, too, he should have had more sense."
"Fear them I!" I ejaculated in surprise.
"Yes, they had some preposterous idea that they were dangerous
shipmates. I have no doubt if you were to go down into the kitchen
now you would find that they are all agreed that our passengers were the
cause of the whole disaster."
As the captain was speaking the parlour door opened and the mate of the
barque, a tall, red-bearded sailor, stepped in. He had obtained a
complete rig-out from some kind-hearted fisherman, and looked in his
comfortable jersey and well-greased seaboots a very favourable specimen
of a shipwrecked mariner.
With a few words of grateful acknowledgment of our hospitality, he drew
a chair up to the fire and warmed his great, brown hands before the
blaze.
"What d'ye think now, Captain Meadows?" he asked presently, glancing up
at his superior officer. "Didn't I warn you what would be the upshot of
having those niggers on board the _Belinda_?"
The captain leant back in his chair and laughed heartily.
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