Tales of Hearsay

"Put a red sash round his waist and a red handkerchief round his head and he would look exactly like one of them buccaneering chaps that made men walk the plank and carried women off into captivity!"

So said another captain about Captain Johns' new mate aboard the Sapphire, the fine ship now at dock in London. With hair dark as a raven's wing, the new mate little knew what would come of shipping with superstitious Johns, who believed in ghosts -- no more than he knew what strange events awaited him on the rolling seas ahead.

"The Black Mate" and the other Tales of Hearsay show Joseph Conrad at his most masterfully fascinating.