At first Jack took him for a beggar, and
gruffly ordered him away, but the fellow insisted.
"I've got news for you, boss," he said, with a curious British
cockney accent. "You lookin' for shipwrecked parties, ain't you?"
"Yes," said Jack, a bit shortly. But that was common news.
"Well, there's an island about fifty miles from here," the black went
on, "and there's somethin' bloomin' stringe about it;" for so he
pronounced "strange."
"Strange--what do you mean?" asked Walter.
"Just what I says, boss, stringe. If you was to say it'd be worth
arf a crown now--"
"Oh, I haven't time to bother with curiosities!" exclaimed Jack,
impatiently.
"Let us hear his story, Jack," insisted Cora. "What is it?" she
asked, giving him a coin, though not as much as he had asked for.
"'Thank ye kindly, Miss. It's this way," said, the colored
Englishman. "I works on a fishin' boat, and a few days ago, comin'
back, we sighted this island. We needed water, and we went ashore to
get it, but--well, we comes away without it."
"Why was that?" asked Walter, curiously.
"Because, boss, there's a strange creature on that island, that's
what there is," said the negro. "He scared all of us stiff. He was
all in rage and titters, and when he found we was sheering off,
without coming ashore, he went wild, and flung his cap at us. It
floated off shore, and I picked it up, bein' on that side of the
boat.
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