Matterson laughed, and Captain Jones with his grand manner said, "You have been too long away from it, Mr. Gleazen."
"Too long? That's as may be. An old horse settles easy into harness again."
Captain Jones smiled. With apparent irrelevance, but with a reminiscent air, he said; "Too long or no, it's a long time since first we met,—a long, long time, and yet I remember as yesterday what a night we had of it. It began when that blasted Frenchman slipped his cables and sought to beat us up the river. It was you, Gleazen, that saved us then. When your message came, with what haste we landed the boats and towed the old brig straight up stream! Row? We rowed like the devil, and though our palms peeled, we won the race. It was a good cargo you had waiting, too. Only seven died in the passage."
In the passage! Already I had suspected, now I knew, that the ship with her fast lines and cruel officers was none other than a slaver; that the smell was the stench of a slave-ship; that in that very cabin men had bartered for human beings. If I could, I would have turned my back on them there and then; the repugnance that I had long felt grew into downright loathing. What would I not have given to be up and away with Arnold Lamont! But I was a mere stripling, alone, so far as help was concerned, in a den of villains crueler than wolves. Though I would eagerly have left them, I dared not; and almost at once something happened that in any case would have held me where I was.
Gleazen leaned across the punch-bowl and said to Captain Jones; "Who is there in port will make a good captain for a smart brig with a neat bow, swift to sail and clever to work?"
Captain Jones ran his fingers through his stiff, shaggy hair. "Now, let me see," he replied, "there's a man—"
Cutting him sharply off, my uncle spoke up, "Gentlemen, I will choose the master of my own vessel."
I knew by his voice that he, as well as I, was sickened by the situation in which we found ourselves. Poor Uncle Seth, I thought, how little did he suspect, when he united his fortune with the golden dreams of Neil Gleazen, that he was to travel such a road as this!
"Ah!" said Gleazen. "And who will it be?" An unkind smile played around his mouth.
"Gideon North, if he will come back to us," said my uncle.