"My folks don't like it. That's all I know."
"But they'll let you go privateering?"
"Yes," I said, with a shrug at my own lack of understanding on that point. "Privateering's honest business after all."
"And free-trading isn't! You'll never make a privateer, mon gars. You're too much in leading-strings."
"I don't know," I said, somewhat ruffled. "I have seen some service. We fought a Frenchman in the West Indies, and I've been twice wrecked."
"So! Well, we're full up, and business is bad or we wouldn't be lying here."
"And you won't give me a trial?"
"No!"
"And that's the last word?"
"That's the last word."