“Oh, hold on, Paul,” urged one of the men in the tender. “There's a right way to handle these old boys.” He stood up. “We're much interested in this packet, captain.”
“That's why you have been making a holy show of her, playing ring around a rosy, hey?”
“But tell me, isn't this the old shallop that was a privateer in the war of eighteen twelve?”
“Nobody aboard here has ever said she wasn't.”
“Well, sir, may we not come on board and look her over?”
“No sir, you can't.”
“Now, look here, captain—”
“I'm looking!” declared the master of the Polly in ominous tones.
“We don't mean to annoy you, captain.”
“Folks who don't know any better do a lot of things without meaning to.”