Joe clenched his teeth and frowned dreadfully.
"I wish I knowed, I'd ha' broken his cocoanut!" said he. "He was a liar, miss, savin' your presence. Said 'e knowed your father, the Cap'n, which," said Joe slowly, "was a d----d lie--beggin' your pardon, miss."
"Said he knew my father?" echoed Sophy anxiously. "What did he know about him?"
"Nothin'," replied Joe firmly. "Make your mind easy, miss--nothin'."
It seemed to Alan as though the old sailor wished to intimate that there really was something in Marlow's past which might be known, but that the tramp was ignorant of it. He evidently wanted to reassure the girl, yet Alan was well aware that Sophy knew practically nothing of her father's life. He resolved to try the effect of a surprise.
"Joe," said he slowly, "it was this tramp who told me the body had been stolen."
Joe's hard, shiny hat, which he had been twisting nervously in his hands, fell to the ground. His face was a dark crimson when he stooped to pick it up, and he stammered:
"Hi, sir! that--that lubber. How did he know?"
"That I have to find out. He offers to sell the information for a hundred pounds."
Joe rubbed his hands and looked ferocious.