Now Cai had in mind a great renunciation:  but unfortunately he could not for the moment discover any way to broach it.  He played to gain time, therefore, awaiting opportunity.

“As for getting a job,” he suggested, “there’s no need to be downcast; no need at all.  If the worst came to the worst, there’s the Hannah Hoo, f’r instance, and a providence she never found a buyer.”

“Ay, to be sure—­I’d forgot the bark’nteen.”

“Come!” said Cai with a quick smile, playing up towards his grand coup.  “What would you say to shippin’ aboard the Hannah Hoo?”

“What?—­as mate under you? . . .  I’d say,” answered ’Bias slowly, “as I’d see you damned first.”

“But”—­Cai stared at him in bewilderment—­“who was proposin’ any such thing?  As skipper I thought o’ you—­what elst?  Leastways—­”

“And you?”

“Me? . . .  But why?  There’s no call for me goin’ to sea again.”

“Ah, to be sure,” said ‘Bias bitterly, “I was forgettin’.  You’ll stay ashore and make up your losses by marryin’!”

“But I haven’t had any losses!” stammered Cai.  “Not beyond the hundred pound in the Saltypool. . . .  Didn’t I make that plain?”

“No, you didn’t.”  ‘Bias laid down his pipe.  “Are you standin’ there and tellin’ me that your papers are all right and safe?”

“To be sure they are.  Rogers handed ’em over to me, and I took ’em home and locked ’em in my strong-box—­it may be four months ago.”

“Ay, that would be about the time. . . .  Well, I congratulate you,” said ’Bias, with deepening bitterness of accent.  “The luck’s yours, every way, and that there’s no denyin’.”

“Wait a bit, though.  You haven’t heard me finish.”

“Well?”

“Since this news came I’ve been thinkin’ pretty hard over one or two things . . . over our difference, f’r instance, an’ the cause of it.  To be plain, I want a word with you about—­well, about Mrs Bosenna.”

“Stow that,” growled ’Bias.  “If you’ve come here to crow—­”

“The Lord knows I’ve not come here to crow. . . .  I’ve come to tell you, as man to man, that I don’t hold ’twas a pretty trick she played us over them two hundreds.  You may see it different, and I hope you do.  I don’t bear her no grudge, you understand? . . .  But if you’ve still a mind to her, and she’ve a mind to you, I stand out from this moment, and wish ’ee luck!”

’Bias stood up, stiff with wrath.

“And the Lord knows, Cai Hocken, how at this moment I keep my hands off you! . . .  Wasn’t it bad enough before, but you must stand patronisin’ there, offerin’ me what you don’t want?  First I’m to ship in your sarvice, eh?  When that won’t do, I’m to marry the woman you’ve no use for?  And there was a time I called ’ee friend!  Hell! if you must poison this garden, poison it by yourself!  Let me get out o’ this.  Stand aside, please, ere I say worse to ’ee!”