The announcement was received with some surprise. Jane, seeing Martha's inquiring face, as if she wanted to hear, repeated the captain's words to her in a loud voice. Martha laid down her knitting and looked at the captain over her spectacles.
"Why, would you take it, captain?" Jane asked in some astonishment, turning to him again.
"Don't know but I would. Ain't no better job for a man than savin' lives. I've helped kill a good many; 'bout time now I come 'bout on another tack. I'm doin' nothin'—haven't been for years. If I could get the right kind of a crew 'round me—men I could depend on—I think I could make it go."
"If you couldn't nobody could, captain," said Jane in a positive way. "Have you picked out your crew?"
"Yes, three or four of 'em. Isaac Polhemus and Tom Morgan—Tom sailed with me on my last voyage—and maybe Tod."
"Archie's Tod?" asked Jane, replacing her scissors and searching for a spool of cotton.
"Archie's Tod," repeated the captain, nodding his head, his big hand stroking Ellen's flossy curls. "That's what brought me up. I want Tod, and he won't go without Archie. Will ye give him to me?"
"My Archie!" cried Jane, dropping her work and staring straight at the captain.
"Your Archie, Miss Jane, if that's the way you put it," and he stole a look at Lucy. She was conscious of his glance, but she did not return it; she merely continued listening as she twirled one of the rings on her finger.
"Well, but, captain, isn't it very dangerous work? Aren't the men often drowned?" protested Jane.