The old captain gave vent to a sudden exclamation that sounded like a groan. His face looked strangely drawn under his coat of tan.
“Are you sick, Captain Jules?” asked Madge hastily. “Do take my place and let me have the oars. I am sure I can row you.”
Captain Jules smiled back at her. “What made you think I was sick?” he asked. “What was that you were telling me? How do you know that your father was guiltless of his fault? Why, Captain Robert Morton was one of the kindest men that ever trod a deck, and yet he was convicted of cruelty to one of his own sailors.”
“Captain Jules,” continued Madge earnestly, “I would like to tell you the whole story if you have time to listen to it. You know I promised long ago to tell you. Two years ago, when we were on the second of our houseboat excursions, we spent part of our holiday near Old Point Comfort. There I met the man who had been my father’s superior officer. Some unpleasant things happened between his granddaughter and me, and she told my father’s story at a dinner in order to humiliate me. Long afterward her grandfather heard of what his granddaughter had done and he made a statement before my friends which cleared my father’s name. He confessed to having allowed my father to suffer for something he had commanded him to do. My father was too great a man to clear himself at the expense of his superior officer, so he left the Navy in disgrace and has never been heard of since that dreadful time.
“There isn’t much more to tell. Only the old admiral has died since I met him. However, he left a paper that was sent to me, in which he acquits my father of all blame and takes the whole responsibility for my father’s act on himself. Must we go back home, Captain Jules?” for, at the end of her speech, Madge observed that the captain had turned his skiff and was rowing directly toward the houseboat. He handed Madge aboard a few moments later with the air of one whose mind is elsewhere.
It was impossible for Miss Jenny Ann to persuade the old pearl diver to remain to supper. With very few words to any of the party he turned Madge over to her friends and rowed hurriedly away toward his home.