Plainly, then, the cook
had been a Chinaman; and, if so, who was Jos. Amalu? Or
had Jos. stolen the chest before he proceeded to ship
under a false name and domicile? It was possible, as
anything was possible in such a welter; but, regarded
as a solution, it only led and left me deeper in the
bog. For why should this chest have been deserted and
neglected, when the others were rummaged or removed?
and where had Jos. come by that second chest, with
which (according to the clerk at the What Cheer) he had
started for Honolulu?
"And how have YOU fared?" inquired the captain,
whom I found luxuriously reclining in our mound of
litter. And the accent on the pronoun, the heightened
colour of the speaker's face, and the contained
excitement in his tones, advertised me at once that I
had not been alone to make discoveries.
"I have found a Chinaman's chest in the galley," said
I, "and John (if there was any John) was not so much as
at the pains to take his opium."
Nares seemed to take it mighty quietly. "That so?"
said he. "Now, cast your eyes on that and own you're
beaten!" And with a formidable clap of his open hand he
flattened out before me, on the deck, a pair of
newspapers.
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