"Right you are," Uncle Zenas added, "an' I for one don't see as there is any need of talk. We've got stuff enough to eat, an' jest so long as his appetite sticks by him I'll give him a chance to find out what kind of a cook I am, though it stands to reason I can't come anywhere near mixin' up what he's been in the habit of gettin' on board one of them big schooners."
"Now see here, Uncle Zenas," Captain Eph said sharply. "I've sat under the droppin' of your cookin' quite a spell, an' so has Sammy. We've never had any fault to find, an' as long as there's breath left in my body I'll maintain that you can hold your own with the cook of any craft that sails."
"Then what did we come up here to talk about?" Uncle Zenas asked as if in perplexity.
"About that boy of our'n, for I reckon he belongs to us till his father comes after him. I ain't wishin' harm to any man; but it wouldn't make me feel very bad if nobody ever showed up to claim the little shaver, 'cause it makes this 'ere tower seem a good deal like home to have a baby in it."
"Are you tryin' to fix up some plan so's it sha'n't be known he's here?" Mr. Peters asked as if in astonishment, and Captain Eph roared angrily:
"See here, Sammy, there are times when you try a patient man like me, as nobody has been tried since the days of Job. Of course I ain't tryin' to keep any baby away from his own true an' lawful father, an' I called you up here so's we could decide how to get word to the capt'n of the West Wind that his boy is here as safe an' snug as a bug in a rug."
"You seemed to allow a spell ago that we might hail a fisherman, an' send a letter ashore," Mr. Peters said in perplexity.
"It don't seem jest the thing to wait a great while for some craft to come within hail, for it stands to reason the poor man is jest about crazy thinkin' the lad's knockin' around in that boat, starvin' to death," and the keeper rubbed his chin vigorously, as if by so doing it might be possible to more readily solve the problem which was before them.
"It wouldn't be any fool of a trip from here to the mainland, at this season of the year, in a dory," Uncle Zenas suggested, and Mr. Peters cried as if he saw a way out of the difficulty.
"The first thing, whatever we agree on, is to write the letter, an' after that's been done we'll have time enough to figger how it's to be sent. I reckon it'll get there all right if you put on it the name of the captain an' the schooner, to be found at Porto Rico, eh?"