"How your crew must love you!"
"I'd boot 'em round the ship if they didn't," snapped Strange, very ferociously. "They've got t' love me up t' the level of workin' their insides out, else I'd lay out every man jack in his little wooden overcoat."
"What a sweet nature you have! Are you married?"
"Got a wife o' sorts," said the mariner, indifferently, "an' two kids of th' best." His eyes softened. "Now, ma'am, you could talk t' me fur a millennium 'bout them little nippers."
The last word was pure Whitechapel, and Leah wondered if that parish could claim this buccaneer. But time was too valuable to go into his private history, so she replied gently, quick to perceive that there was a flaw in his armour, "On another occasion I shall be delighted to talk nursery, Captain Strange; but the millennium has not yet arrived in Curzon Street."
"Y've got me there, I don't deny," cried Strange, hardening. "Now this here racket, as I've sailed long-sides t' fix up----"
"It will be fixed up, as you call it, at once," said Lady Jim, sharply. "The matter is very simple."
"Is it now? Lay on th' paint, ma'am."
She passed over this insolence very wisely. "You were kind to that poor Mr. Garth," she explained, calmly. "And, besides, took Dr. Demetrius to my husband in Jamaica. For these services I am willing to give you one thousand pounds--in gold, if you like;" she thought the metal might tempt him into closing with the offer, but it did not.
"Shucks, ma'am, shucks! You've bin talkin' paint an' putty fur th' las' hour an' more. T'ain't no good nohow--not a bit, seein' as I'm being paid fur cold-drawn kidnappin' of your husband, so as y might loot a company of sorts."