“And there is no appeal?” I asked.

“Oh, the wretch said we might appeal if we pleased, but meanwhile ’twas the order of the court that Lucy should pass under Cludde’s guardianship.  But he had not reckoned with Lucy.  While I was in London about the miserable business she was with Mistress Allardyce at Bath, where madam had gone to take the waters.  ’Twas lucky Cludde did not know that, for as soon as the decision was made, he posted off with the decree in his pocket, making no doubt that he would seize her here and carry her off in triumph.  Ha! ha! you should hear Giles tell how he raved and cursed when he found she was not here.  He demanded to know where she was, but not a man or maid would tell him; I’ve raised their wages all round.  Meanwhile I had posted to Bath, and no sooner does Lucy hear what has happened than she jumps up and cries:  ’I’ll not have him for guardian for all the judges in the country.  Uncle, I’ll go back to Jamaica; please find me a ship at once.’  Egad, I like spirit in a woman.

“Well, being only a stone’s throw, you may say, from Bristowe, it was no long matter to arrange as she wished.  I own I was loath to let her go, but ’twas clear that Cludde would get hold of her if she remained in the country, and there was no better way to avoid that. ‘’Twill not be for long, uncle,’ she says when I bid her good-by.  ’In a few months I shall be of age, and then I can snap my fingers at the Lord Chancellor himself.’  And that’s one consolation, Humphrey; she will be of age before the year’s out.”

“But will not Sir Richard go after her?”

“Not he.  He doesn’t know—­at least I hope not—­where she is.  And he’s crippled with the gout, and made it ten times worse by rushing across country in such desperate haste in the wettest month I’ve known for a score of years.  He came in his coach to see me, and couldn’t stir out of it, his foot being so swathed in flannel.  He roared himself purple, threatening me with imprisonment for contempt of court and what not, but I laughed in his face, and told him that Lucy was a Cludde already, and would change her name for a better one when the time came.  That hit him on the raw, Humphrey my boy; he went away fuming, and I don’t think he will drive over to see me again.”

And then, being somewhat cheered by this recollection of his victory over Sir Richard, he asked me how I had been faring.  When he learned that I was about to sail for the West Indies again, he gave a gleeful chuckle.

“I wish you luck, my boy,” he cried, slapping me on the back, “both in love and war.”

“Sir!” said I, conscious of flushed cheeks.

“Give Lucy my love,” he said, “and remember, my lad, that ’tis a very serious matter to marry a ward of court.”

And then he chuckled and laughed again.  Seeing that I had never so much as hinted that any such idea as he suggested had entered my head, I was somewhat taken aback by the old gentleman’s perspicacity; for if the truth must be told (and it will out, sooner or later) I had quite resolved in my own mind that as soon as I attained captain’s rank, and had gained some store of prize money, as I had no doubt I should do, I would endeavor to settle Dick Cludde’s hash so far as his matrimonial project was concerned.