“Well, and more’s the pity you didn’t let ’em, then,” said Joan.  “I would, I knaw.  Safe bind’s safe find, and you can never tell when fightin’ begins where ‘tis goin’ to end to.”

“It shouldn’t ha’ ended where it did if I’d had my way,” said Jerrem.

“Awh, well! there, never mind,” said old Zebedee.  “You’ll have a chance agen, never fear, and then we must make ’ee capen.  How’d that plaze ’ee, eh?”

Jerrem’s face bespoke his satisfaction.  “Take care I don’t hold ’ee to yer word,” he said, laughing.  “I’ve got witnesses, mind, to prove it:  here’s Barnabas here, and Zeke Teague, and they won’t say me nay, I’ll wager—­will ’ee, lads?”

“Wa-all, bide a bit, bide a bit,” said Zebedee, winking in appreciation of this joke.  “There’ll be two or three o’ the oldsters drap in durin’ the ebenin’, and then us ’ll have a bit of a jaw together on it, and weigh sides on the matter.”

As Uncle Zebedee anticipated, the evening brought a goodly number of visitors, who, one after another, came dropping in until the sitting-room was pretty well filled, and it was as much as Eve and Joan could manage to see that each one was comfortably seated and provided for.

There were the captains of the three vessels, with a portion of the crew of each, several men belonging to the place—­all more or less mixed up with the ventures—­and of course the crew of the Lottery, by no means yet tired of having their story listened to and their adventure discussed.  Adam’s absence was felt to be a great relief, and each one inwardly voted it as a proof that Adam himself saw that he’d altogether made a missment and gone nigh to damage the whole concern.  Many a jerk of the head or the thumb accompanied a whisper that “he’d a tooked hisself off,” and drew forth the response that “’twas the proper line to pursoo;” and, feeling they had no fear of interruption, they resigned themselves to enjoyment and settled down to jollity, in the very midst of which Adam made his appearance.  But the time was passed when his presence or his absence could in any way affect them, and, instead of the uncomfortable silence which at an earlier stage might have fallen upon the party, his entrance was now only the occasion of hard hits and rough jokes, which Adam, seeing the influence under which they were made, tried to bear with all the temper he could command.

“Don’t ’ee take no notice of ’em,” said Joan, bending over him to set down some fresh glasses.  “They ain’t worth yer anger, not one among ’em.  I’ve kept Eve out of it so much as I could, and after now there won’t be no need for her to come in agen; so you go outside there.  Her’s a waitin’ to have a word with ’ee.”

“Then wait she may,” said Adam:  “I’m goin’ to stop where I am.—­Here, father,” he cried, “pass the liquor this way.  Come, push the grog about.  Last come first served, you know.”

The heartiness with which this was said caused considerable astonishment.