"No, sir. I don't know what you mean."
"Why, Commodore James started t'other day to take a good sea-look at Gheria. There's an expedition getting ready to draw that rascally Pirate's teeth. You saw nothing of the squadron? No nonsense, now."
"Not a thing, sir. We were blown out to sea, and I suppose the Commodore passed us in the night."
"H'm! Very likely. And you weathered that storm, did you? Learnt your seamanship, eh?"
"Picked up a little on board the Good Intent, sir. I was ship's boy aboard."
"Mighty queer ship's boy!" said Mr. Johnson in an audible aside. "The Good Intent's a villainous interloper; how came you aboard of her?"
"I was in a sense tricked into it, sir, and when we got to Gheria Captain Barker and Mr. Diggle the supercargo sold me to Angria."
"Sold you to the Pirate?"
"Yes, sir."
"And where do you hail from, then?"