fifteen minutes, or maybe mo', I waked a-sudden, feelin' a rope coilin' roun' and roun' me same as a sarpint; and, befo' I could bat a lid, mates, I war lashed tight in that thar chair. I never knowed such quick work as that varmint done. I yells, but it ain't done no good; and what I let out I ain't got no way o' knowing fer thar is times when a man's words ain't come from his senses."
"And you didn't see the man?" Turner asked quietly.
"I couldn't, mates. He war behind me, and I war tied stiff as a corpse befo' I knowed it, and one twis' o' that thar rope war roun' my neck."
"And you claim it was a man you knew as Bill Perkins?"
"Bill Perkins it war that I hadn't seen befo' fer thirty year."
"And you didn't see him this time?" insisted Turner.
"Let the Cap'n talk," growled a longshoreman. "You can't tell a yarn straight when you're pestered by a felluh tryin' to twis' sumpin' out o' you like a pesky lawyer."
