"It is, ma'am," Captain Cai turned about to call up 'Bias to be introduced, when Mr Tregaskis gently checked him, laying a hand on the musical box.
"I didn' think it worth mentionin' at the time, sir; but these instruments aren't intended for carryin' about."
"No, no," Captain Cai agreed hastily. "Here, 'Bias! Look around an' see who's the first to welcome ye! Tregaskis, of all men! And this here's his missus."
"How d'e do, Mr Tregaskis," said Captain Tobias, shaking hands. He knew the mate of the Hannah Hoo, and respected him for a capable seaman. "I hope I see you well, ma'am?"
"Nicely, sir, thank you!" Mrs Tregaskis curtseyed and beamed.
But Captain Tobias, though with her, too, he shook hands politely
enough, was plainly preoccupied. "'Tis a wonderful invention," said he.
"You just let the gas run in, an' then it is ready for use at any time.
I hadn't a notion you was so up-to-date here."
Mr Tregaskis looked puzzled. "It don't work by gas. You wind it up with a cog arrangement, which acts on a spring coil, I'm told—just like the inside of a watch. But we can see by liftin' up the lid."
"Eh?" Captain Tobias glanced back over his shoulder.
"But as I was tellin' the boss, 'twas never intended for a country walk. You sets it down at home and calls for a tune—as it might be drinks," continued Mr Tregaskis lucidly.
Captain Cai touched his friend's elbow. "You're talkin' o' different things, you two," he explained in a nervous haste, anxious to get off delicate ground. "Tregaskis was alludin' to—er—this here; which" he concluded, "nobody could have been more taken aback than I was this mornin' . . . when it happened."