"--I'll explain. You see, you not only came aboard looking what you
are, but you came aboard fairly slimed over, in addition, with all
that had ever been told or guessed against Buck Vliet's missionary.
The stories didn't agree about his sect: but they agreed that Vliet,
though a ruffian, hadn't marooned the man just for fun--that he must
have been a hard case somehow. The stories might vary concerning
Vliet's reasons: but they agreed that the man hadn't come to it by
sheer over-prayerfulness: and the conclusion was--reasonable or
unreasonable--that you, Foe, must have been a bad potato somehow, or
at best a severe trial, if so hardened a stomach as Vliet's hadn't
been able to keep you down. Worse; he guessed you for a spy.
"--Here, Sir Roderick and Mr. Collingwood, I must tell you that Vliet
and Hales, as masters in this knock-about off-island trade, had grown
to be rival kings in their way, and Hales in his brooding fashion as
jealous as fire. From all I've heard, Vliet hadn't the ambition to
be properly jealous: all _he_ objected to was his business being cut.
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