“Then the gentleman, as you call him, expected that very boat to come and take him off?”

“I suppose so, sir, because it did come and take him off.  That’s all I knows about it.”

“Had you no jaw with the gentleman?  You was n’t mnm the whole time you was in the boat with him?”

“Not a bit of it, sir.  Silence and I does n’t agree together long, and so we talked most of the time.”

“And what did the stranger say of the brig?”

“Lord, sir, he catechised me like as if I had been a child at Sunday-school.  He asked me how long I had sailed in her; what ports we’d visited, and what trade we’d been in.  You can’t think the sight of questions he put, and how cur’ous he was for the answers.”

“And what did you tell him in your answers?  You said nothin’ about our call down on the Spanish Main, the time you were left ashore, I hope, Jack?”

“Not I, sir.  I played him off surprisin’ly.  He got nothin’ to count upon out of me.  Though I do owe the Molly Swash a grudge, I’m not goin’ to betray her.”

“You owe the Molly Swash a grudge!  Have I taken an enemy on board her, then?”

Jack started, and seemed sorry he had said so much; while Spike eyed him keenly.  But the answer set all right.  It was not given, however, without a moment for recollection.

“Oh, you knows what I mean, sir.  I owe the old hussy a grudge for having desarted me like; but it’s only a love quarrel atween us.  The old Molly will never come to harm by my means.”

“I hope not, Jack.  The man that wrongs the craft he sails in can never be a true-hearted sailor.  Stick by your ship in all weathers is my rule, and a good rule it is to go by.  But what did you tell the stranger?”

“Oh!  I told him I’d been six v’y’ges in the brig.  The first was to Madagascar—­”

“The d—­l you did?  Was he soft enough to believe that?”

“That’s more than I knows, sir.  I can only tell you what I said; I do n’t pretend to know how much he believed.”

“Heave ahead—­what next?”

“Then I told him we went to Kamschatka for gold dust and ivory.”

“Whe-e-ew!  What did the man say to that?”

“Why, he smiled a bit, and a’ter that he seemed more cur’ous than ever to hear all about it.  I told him my third v’y’ge was to Canton, with a cargo of broom-corn, where we took in salmon and dun-fish for home.  A’ter that we went to Norway with ice, and brought back silks and money.  Our next run was to the Havana, with salt and ’nips—­”

“’Nips! what the devil be they?”

“Turnips, you knows, sir.  We always calls ’em ’nips in cargo.  At the Havana I told him we took in leather and jerked beef, and came home.  Oh! he got nothin’ from me, Capt.  Spike, that’ll ever do the brig a morsel of harm!”

“I am glad of that, Jack.  You must know enough of the seas to understand that a close mouth is sometimes better for a vessel than a clean bill of health.  Was there nothing said about the revenue-steamer?”