"But, perhaps, Captain Pardee, you can relieve us a little. Perhaps they were not cod-fishers but mackerelers. I remember a song I have heard my father sing, beginning,
"When Jake came home from mack'reling, He sought his Sary Ann, And found that she, the heartless thing, Had found another man!"
"Do please say that they were mackerelers!"
"I am sorry I cannot relieve your anxiety on that point," said
Pardee, but I can assure you they were a very respectable family."
"No doubt, as families go 'there," she answered, with some bitterness. "They doubtless sold good fish, and gave a hundred pounds for a quintal, or whatever it is they sell the filthy truck by."
"They were very successful and somewhat noted privateers during the Revolution," said Pardee.
"Worse and worse!" said Mrs. Le Moyne. Better they were fishermen than pirates! I wonder if they didn't bring over niggers too?"
"I should not be at all surprised," answered Pardee coolly. "This 'Red Jim' was master and owner of a vessel of some kind, and was on his way back from Charleston, where it seems he had sold both his vessel and cargo, when he executed this will."
"But how do you know that it is his will?" asked Hesden.
"Oh, there is no doubt," said Pardee. "Being a shipmaster, his signature was necessarily affixed to many papers. I have found not less than twenty of these, all identical with the signature of the will."