“Nay, refuse not to reply. I come with the authority of the Queen.”
“He tells us that the sea-green lady is our Queen and that we have no other.”
“Rashness and rebellion!” muttered Myndert: “but this foolhardiness will one day bring as pretty a brigantine as ever sailed in the narrow seas, to condemnation; and then will there be rumors abroad, and characters cracked, till every lover of gossip in the Americas shall be tired of defamation.”
“It is a bold subject, that dares say this!” rejoined Ludlow, who heeded not the by-play of the Alderman; “Your master has a name?”
“We never hear it. When Neptune boards us, under the tropics, he always hails the ‘Skimmer of the Seas,’ and then they answer. The old God knows us well, for we pass his latitude oftener than other ships, they say.”
“You are then a cruiser of some service, in the brigantine—no doubt you have trod many distant shores, belonging to so swift a craft.”
“I!—I never was on the land!” returned the boy, thoughtfully. “It must be droll to be there; they say, one can hardly walk, it is so steady! I put a question to the sea-green lady before we came to this narrow inlet, to know when I was to go ashore.”
“And she answered?”
“It was some time, first. Two watches were past before a word was to be seen; but at last I got the lines. I believe she mocked me, though I have never dared show it to my master, that he might say.”
“Hast the words, here?—perhaps we might assist thee, as there are some among us who know most of the sea-paths.”