Page:Rover Boys on Treasure Isle.djvu/158

142 his reddish hair long and also sported a thick beard. He had a squint in one eye which, as Sam said, "gave him the appearance of looking continually over his shoulder. When he talked his voice was an alternate squeak and rumble.

"Well, of all the odd fellows I ever met he is the limit," was Tom's comment. "Why, he'd do for a comic valentine!"

"I almost had to laugh in his face," said Sam. "Even now I can't look at him without grinning."

"He's a character," was Dick's opinion. "You'll never get tired with that chap around," and in this surmise he was correct, for Bahama Bill was as full of sea yarns as some fish are full of bones, and he was willing to talk as long as anybody would listen to him.

"Very much pleased to know ye all," said he with a profound bow to the ladies. "Ain't seen such a nice crowd since I sailed on the Mary Elizabeth, up the coast o' Maine, jest fourteen years ago. At that time we had on board Captain Rigger's wife, his mother-in-law, his two sisters, his brother's wife, his aunt and"

"Never mind the Rigger family just now, Camel," interrupted Mr. Rover. "What I want to know is, are you ready to sail?"

"Aye, aye! that I am, and I don't care if it's a trip for two months or two years. Once when I