TO PAY MY SHOT

To master, mate, and men of the ship Hunter, whose voyage is the backbone of my story; to Captain David Woodard, English mariner, who more than a hundred and twenty years ago was wrecked on the island of Celebes; to Captain R.G.F. Candage of Brookline, Massachusetts, who was party to the original contract in melon seeds; and to certain blue-water skippers who have left sailing directions for eastern ports and seas, I am grateful for fascinating narratives and journals, and indebted for incidents in this tale of an earlier generation.

C.B.H.

CONTENTS

I IN WHICH WE SAIL FOR CANTON, CHINA

    I My Father and I Call on Captain Whidden
   II Bill Hayden
  III The Man Outside the Galley
   IV A Piece of Pie
    V Kipping

II IN WHICH WE ENCOUNTER AN ARAB SHIP

   VI The Council in the Cabin
  VII The Sail with a Lozenge-Shaped Patch
 VIII Attacked
   IX Bad Signs
    X The Treasure-Seeker

III WHICH APPROACHES A CRISIS

   XI A Hundred Thousand Dollars in Gold
  XII A Strange Tale
 XIII Trouble Forward
  XIV Bill Hayden Comes to the End of His Voyage

IV IN WHICH THE TIDE OF OUR FORTUNES EBBS

   XV Mr. Falk Tries to Cover His Tracks
  XVI A Prayer for the Dead
 XVII Marooned
XVIII Adventures Ashore

V IN WHICH THE TIDE TURNS

  XIX In Last Resort
   XX A Story in Melon Seeds
  XXI New Allies
 XXII We Attack
XXIII What We Found in the Cabin

VI IN WHICH WE REACH THE PORT OF OUR DESTINATION

 XXIV Falk Proposes a Truce
  XXV Including a Cross-Examination
 XXVI An Attempt to Play on Our Sympathy
XXVII We Reach Whampoa, but Not the End of Our Troubles

VII OLD SCORES AND NEW AND A DOUBTFUL WELCOME

XXVIII A Mystery Is Solved and a Thief Gets Away
  XXIX Homeward Bound
   XXX Through Sunda Strait
  XXXI Pikes, Cutlasses, and Guns
 XXXII "So Ends"