"I can't explain it," said I.
Mamie wagged her head ominously.
"But, great Caesar's ghost, the money was offered!"
cried Jim. "It won't do, Loudon; it's nonsense on the
face of it! I don't say but what you and Nares did your
best; I'm sure, of course, you did; but I do say you
got fooled. I say the stuff is in that ship to-day,
and I say I mean to get it."
"There is nothing in the ship, I tell you, but old wood
and iron!" said I.
"You'll see," said Jim. "Next time I go myself I'll
take Mamie for the trip: Longhurst won't refuse me the
expense of a schooner. You wait till I get the
searching of her."
"But you can't search her!" cried I. "She's burned."
"Burned!" cried Mamie, starting a little from the
attitude of quiescent capacity in which she had
hitherto sat to hear me, her hands folded in her lap.
There was an appreciable pause.
"I beg your pardon, Loudon," began Jim at last, "but
why in snakes did you burn her?"
"It was an idea of Nares's," said I.
"This is certainly the strangest circumstance of all,"
observed Mamie.
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