"Where but the Tidewater where that girl is?"
I stopped to put one thing to another. "And he is after that red-haired Rose, too?"
"What else?"
"But doesn't she know, or doesn't her uncle know, that he's a wife in Boston?"
"Her uncle!" he snorted. "He's no more wit than my ship's cat."
"But Drislane knows—won't he tell her?"
"He don't seem to. A proud one, Drislane. Six months he's been with me now in the Sirius, and if she isn't sure she wants him above anybody else on this earth, then she needn't have him, that's all; or leastwise, that's how I sense him. He wouldn't take no odds of the devil, that lad."
I could believe that; and it set me to thinking.
"Maybe you're thinkin' now," he went on, "that she should be able to see for herself what my cousin is? But what training has she had to judge o' men? What other kind does she see aught of in her uncle's place? Indeed, with her bringing up and what brains the poor girl has, she's done very well, I'm thinkin', to ha' kept off the rocks as long as she has. A hundred to one you'll find my fine cousin at the Tidewater to-night. But I must be going. Good night to you."