Sarréo, page 1 by Louis Becke
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th three of any one of 'em. Did you notice that photograph in my cabin--that one showing a ship's company standing on deck?"
"Yes, I did," replied Denison.
"Well, that's the crew of the Fanny Long, and amongst 'em is a fellow I'm goin' to tell you about--a chap named Sarréo. We had that picture taken in Hobart after we had come back from a sperm whaling cruise. We had been very lucky, and the skipper and owners had all our photographs taken in a group. I was second mate, and this Sarréo was one of the boatsteerers. Him and me had been shipmates before, once in the old Meteor barque, nigger-catching for the Fiji planters, and once in a New Bedford sperm whaler, and he had taken a bit of a liking to me, so whenever I got a new ship he generally shipped too.
"Well, I was tired of whaling; I had two ribs broke on that cruise in the Fanny Lang, by a boat being stove in by a whale. So after I had got my money I walked out of the office, thinking of going to Sydney by the steamboat, when up comes Sarréo.
"'Got your dollars, Sarréo?' I says.
"'Yes,' he answers. 'What you goin' to do now, Mr. Potter?'
"'Going to Sydney to look for another ship.'
"'All right,' he says quietly. 'I come too. I don' want to go whalin' no more.'
"Sure enough, when I went on board the steamer there he was for'ard sitting on his chest, smoking his pipe, an' waiting for me.
"In Sydney there was a fine big lump of a schooner just fitting out for a trading cruise to the Solomon Islands, and I happened to know the skipper, who worked it for me with the owners and I got the berth of chief mate; and Sarréo (who used to come every day to the place I was staying at to ask me not to forget him) was shipped as an A.B.
"What sort of a looking man? Well, he was a short, square-built chap, with a chest like a working bullock. He was rather darker than a Samoan or a Tahiti man, owing to a s