Salmon was a butcher what had been
carried out to sea while paddling at Margate to strengthen his ankles.
He said a lot more of this sort of thing, and all this time we was
chasing his miserable little boat, an' he was admiring the way she
sailed, while the fust mate was answering his reflexshuns, an' I'm sure
that not even our skipper was more pleased than Mr. Salmon when we
caught it at last, and shoved him back. He was ungrateful up to the
last, an', just before leaving the ship, actually went up to Cap'n
Brown, and advised him to shut his eyes an' turn round three times and
catch what he could.
"I never saw the skipper so upset afore, but I heard him tell Mr.
McMillan that night that if he ever went out of his way again after a
craft, it would only be to run it down. Most people keep pretty quiet
about supernatural things that happen to them, but he was about the
quietest I ever heard of, an', what's more, he made everyone else keep
quiet about it, too. Even when he had to steer nor'-nor'-west arter that
in the way o' business he didn't like it, an' he was about the most
cruelly disappointed man you ever saw when he heard afterwards that
Cap'n Naskett got safe to Liverpool."
AFTER THE INQUEST
It was a still fair evening in late summer in the parish of Wapping.
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