"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.
"I must say, Loudon, it does seem kind of unexpected," added Jim.