Page:Cruise of the Dry Dock.djvu/263

 They moved through the laundry with fading hopes of kidnapping an engineer from such a formidable institution, when they were startled by a human laugh. It sounded in their ears and was as unexpected as a shriek in church. For an instant they thought they were apprehended. Then they understood the sound came from one of the lighted ports.

They moved softly among the shirts and trousers until they reached the suspected port. Inside they heard a very trivial conversation in English.

“I'm after that jack of yours, Captain Cleghorne,” declared a thick voice with a laugh.

“I played low, remember that,”

A silence, then a burst of laughter.

“He ran that jick over your king!”

Leonard stood beside the port blind making a tantalizing effort to recall something. Where had he heard the name “Cleghorne?” He repeated it mentally several times.

“Cleghorne, Cleghorne——” of a sudden it came to him. He had never heard it, but had seen it framed in the license that hung in the chart room of the schooner, Minnie B.