The captain explained. “Of course you think it's queer that I haven't said a word about what Julia told us,” he went on. “Eh? Don't you?”
“What—ah—what Miss Hoag said, you mean?”
“Plague take Marietta!” impatiently. “She wan't nothin' but the go-between. 'Twas my wife that said it. You understand 'twas Julia, my wife, talkin', don't you?”
“Why—ah—why—I suppose—”
“Suppose? Don't you KNOW 'twas?”
“Why—ah—no doubt, no doubt.”
“Course there ain't any doubt. Well then, Julia said there was a dark man heavin' a sort of evil influence over Lulie.”
“She said a SMALL dark man, a stranger. And she said he was present among us. So far as I can see I was the only small dark stranger.”
“But you ain't an evil influence, are you?”
“Well, I—ah—hope not. Dear me, no!”