“My dear sir,” he said once, “you cannot know what a bit of finery is to me, who has so little chance for the wearing of it.  To discuss with a gentleman, a connoisseur (I know a bit of French, Mr. Carvel), is a pleasure I do not often come at.”

His simplicity in this touched me; it was pathetic.

“How know you I am a gentleman, Captain Paul?” I asked curiously.

“I should lack discernment, sir,” he retorted, with some heat, “if I could not see as much.  Breeding shines through sack-cloth, sir.  Besides,” he continued, in a milder tone, “the look of you is candour itself.  Though I have not greatly the advantage of you in age, I have seen many men, and I know that such a face as yours cannot lie.”

Here Mr. Lowrie, the second mate, came in with a report; and I remarked that he stood up hat in hand whilst making it, very much as if Captain Paul commanded a frigate.  The captain went to a locker and brought forth some mellow Madeira, and after the mate had taken a glass of it standing, he withdrew.  Then we lighted pipes and sat very cosey with a lanthorn swung between us, and Captain Paul expressed a wish to hear my story.

I gave him my early history briefly, dwelling but casually upon the position enjoyed in Maryland by my family; but I spoke of my grandfather, now turning seventy, gray-haired in the service of King and province.  The captain was indeed a most sympathetic listener, now throwing in a question showing keen Scotch penetration, and anon making a most ludicrous inquiry as to the dress livery our footmen wore, and whether Mr. Carvel used outriders when he travelled abroad.  This was the other side of the man.  As the wine warmed and the pipe soothed, I spoke at length of Grafton and the rector; and when I came to the wretched contrivance by which they got me aboard the Black Moll, he was stalking hither and thither about the cabin, his fists clenched and his voice thick, breaking into Scotch again and vowing that hell were too good for such as they.

His indignation, which seemed real and generous, transformed him into another man.  He showered question after question upon me concerning my uncle and Mr. Allen; declared that he had known many villains, but had yet to hear of their equals; and finally, cooling a little, gave it as his judgment that the crime could never be brought home to them.  This was my own opinion.  He advised me, before we turned in, to “gie the parson a Grunt” as soon as ever I could lay hands upon him.

The John made a good voyage for that season, with fair winds and clear skies for the most part.  ’Twas a stout ship and a steady, with generous breadth of beam, and kept by the master as clean and bright as his porringer.  He was Emperor aboard her.  He spelt Command with a large C, and when he inspected, his jacks stood to attention like man-o’-war’s men.  The John mounting only four guns, and but two of them ninepounders, I expressed my astonishment that he had dared attack a pirate craft like the Black Moll, without knowing her condition and armament.