"I am willing, sir, to risk everything you threaten, rather than wait here indefinitely."
"Can't you take us, Wright—Miss Grey, Willis, and myself? We are very impatient to get home."
"But I have no accommodation for passengers."
"But I suppose, sir, we could contrive to live a few days without eating at a regular table. I will take some cheese and crackers and fruit along in a basket, if that will ease your mind. Do waive your scruples, and consent to take charge of us."
"I add my prayers to hers. Wright, do take us. We shall not mind privations or inconvenience."
"Well, then, understand distinctly that, if anything happens, you are not to blame me. If the young lady gets sea-sick, or freckled, or sunburnt, or starved to death, or blown up, or drowned, or, worse than all, if the Yankee thieves by the wayside take her as a prize, it will be no fault of mine whatever, and I tell you now I shall not lay it on my conscience."
"Wright, to what part are you bound?"
"Ah! that is more than I can tell you. The winds must decide it. I can't try the Carolinas again this trip; they are watching for me too closely there. New Orleans is rather a longer run than I care to make, and I shall keep my eyes on Apalachicola and Mobile."
"What object have you in starting to-night, particularly in the face of a gale?"
Again the captain's eyes swept round the room, to guard against any doors that might be ajar.