As Travis and Condy were going down the gangplank they met the
captain of the whaleback coming up.
"I saw you in there talking to old McPherson," he explained. "Did
you get what you wanted from him?"
"More, more!" exclaimed Condy.
"My hand in the fire, he told you that yarn about the girl who was
drowned off Trincomalee. Of course, I knew it. The old boy's
wits are turned on that subject. He WILL have it that the body
hasn't decomposed in all this time. Good seaman enough, and a
first-class navigator, but he's soft in that one spot."
Chapter IV
"Oh, but the STORY of it!" exclaimed Condy as he and Travis
regained the wharf--"the story of it! Isn't it a ripper. Isn't it
a corker! His leaving her that way, and never caring for any other
girl afterward."
"And so original," she commented, quite as enthusiastic as he.
"Original?--why, it's new as paint! It's--it's--Travis, I'll make
a story out of this that will be copied in every paper between the
two oceans."
They were so interested in the mate's story that they forgot to
take a car, and walked up Clay Street talking it over, suggesting,
rearranging, and embellishing; and Condy was astonished and
delighted to note that she "caught on" to the idea as quickly as
he, and knew the telling points and what details to leave out.
"And I'll make a bang-up article out of the whaleback herself,"
declared Condy. The "idea" of the article had returned to him,
and all his enthusiasm with it.
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