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and then with a sort of sigh of satisfaction
mounted our ricketty steps without a sign
of lameness. Oh no! Thought I this is
worse than I expected. In about ten minutes
after John had gained the deck, creak
went the door of [?] and
out came the long legs of another candidate,
the legs were booted for travel and
clad in buffalo. As they emerged a
figure raised itself and beheld a pistol
within six inches of his nose.
"William," said I. "Well hi" said he.
"Go inside and take your station by
the table." He went in. "Now Morton,"
said Dr Kane for he had followed the
man into the apartment, "now Morton go
on deck and tell John, quietly, that I
want to see him." Mr. Bonsall take your
station at the door let no one pass out.

Presently in crawled John, very
lame and exhasted, and growing rapidly
lamer as recovering from the glare of the daylight
he saw the tableau.
I then explained to the ship's company the
state of things told them how much trouble
and loss of sleep the plot had caused
me and explained to the two scoundrels
step by step every one of their plans.
Bill was so [confounded] (dumbfoundered) that he
confessed at once whereupon I knocked
him down and mauled him until he
cried for mercy. under my mitten was
a leaden fist which I had secretly
manufactured and concealed for the
purpose so that I could punish him
pro re nata. After this was over
I read from the Log book an affidavit
signed by the witnesses to the
effect that he had repeatedly stolen