“That I will look to. Jan hath sent thee £100.”
Snorro’s face brightened like sunrise. “I am glad that he thought of me; but I will not touch the money. I have already more than £20. Thou shalt keep the £100 for little Jan.”
“Snorro, he hath also sent the £600 he took from his wife, that and the interest.”
“But how? How could he do that already?”
“He has won it from the men who coin life into gold; it is mostly prize money.”
“Good luck to Jan’s hands! That is much to my mind.”
“I will tell thee one instance, and that will make thee understand it better. Thou must know that it is not a very easy matter to blockade over three thousand miles of African coast, especially as the slave ships are very swift, and buoyant. Indeed the Spanish and Portuguese make theirs of very small timbers and beams which they screw together. When chased the screws are loosened, and this process gives the vessel amazing play. Their sails are low, and bent broad. Jan tells me that the fore-yard of a brig of one hundred and forty tons, taken by ‘The Retribution’ was seventy-six feet long, and her ropes so beautifully racked aloft, that after a cannonade of sixty shot, in which upward of fifty took effect, not one sail was lowered. Now thou must perceive that a chase in the open sea would mostly be in favor of vessels built so carefully for escape.”
“Why, then, do not the Government build the same kind of vessels?”