(Slight pause. Abner enters.)
Abner. Did you send Sammy after me?
Ber. Yes, I did. I’ve got something to say to you and I thought this would be a good place up here. Cap’n Freeman, I’m Ariel’s father.
Abner (staggered). What? What do you mean? (Suddenly growing furious.) What kind of a trick is this? Do you expect me to take your word for it? What’s your game?
Ber. (calmly). I married Alicia Emerson twenty years ago this month. Two years later she and our year old daughter made a trip with me. We ran into a storm and were wrecked. My wife’s body was recovered. The child’s was not. I supposed her dead, of course. She wore a ring, a ring that had been her mother’s. It had her name, Alicia, engraved in it, also the mark of a German jeweler and——
Abner (hoarsely). Enough! How long have you known this?
Ber. I guessed it last night when I saw Alicia’s face in your daughter. I made sure of the truth this afternoon.
Abner. Well, what are you going to do? She is under age. The law would give her to you, I suppose. Are you going to take her away from me after all these years?
Ber. You love her?
Abner. How can you ask such a question? She is all I have! Ask any one in Bay Point. Ask the girl herself!