“Why, would you take it, captain?” Jane asked in some astonishment, turning to him again.

“Don’t know but I would.  Ain’t no better job for a man than savin’ lives.  I’ve helped kill a good many; ’bout time now I come ’bout on another tack.  I’m doin’ nothin’—­haven’t been for years.  If I could get the right kind of a crew ’round me—­men I could depend on—­I think I could make it go.”

“If you couldn’t nobody could, captain,” said Jane in a positive way.  “Have you picked out your crew?”

“Yes, three or four of ’em.  Isaac Polhemus and Tom Morgan—­Tom sailed with me on my last voyage —­and maybe Tod.”

“Archie’s Tod?” asked Jane, replacing her scissors and searching for a spool of cotton.

“Archie’s Tod,” repeated the captain, nodding his head, his big hand stroking Ellen’s flossy curls.  “That’s what brought me up.  I want Tod, and he won’t go without Archie.  Will ye give him to me?”

“My Archie!” cried Jane, dropping her work and staring straight at the captain.

“Your Archie, Miss Jane, if that’s the way you put it,” and he stole a look at Lucy.  She was conscious of his glance, but she did not return it; she merely continued listening as she twirled one of the rings on her finger.

“Well, but, captain, isn’t it very dangerous work?  Aren’t the men often drowned?” protested Jane.

“Anything’s dangerous ’bout salt water that’s worth the doin’.  I’ve stuck to the pumps seventy-two hours at a time, but I’m here to tell the tale.”

“Have you talked to Archie?”

“No, but Tod has.  They’ve fixed it up betwixt ’em.  The boy’s dead set to go.”

“Well, but isn’t he too young?”

“Young or old, he’s tough as a marline-spike—­ A1, and copper fastened throughout.  There ain’t a better boatman on the beach.  Been that way ever since he was a boy.  Won’t do him a bit of harm to lead that kind of life for a year or two.  If he was mine it wouldn’t take me a minute to tell what I’d do.”

Jane leaned back in her chair, her eyes on the crackling logs, and began patting the carpet with her foot.  Lucy became engrossed in a book that lay on the table beside her.  She didn’t intend to take any part in the discussion.  If Jane wanted Archie to serve as a common sailor that was Jane’s business.  Then again, it was, perhaps, just as well for a number of reasons to have him under the captain’s care.  He might become so fond of the sea as to want to follow it all his life.

“What do you think about it, Lucy?” asked Jane.

“Oh, I don’t know anything about it.  I don’t really.  I’ve lived so long away from here I don’t know what the young men are doing for a living.  He’s always been fond of the sea, has he not, Captain Holt?”

“Allus,” said the captain doggedly; “it’s in his blood.”  Her answer nettled him.  “You ain’t got no objections, have you, ma’am?” he asked, looking straight at Lucy.