“Not meanin' to set my betters right, Minister,” said Captain January, “I never seed as it made any difference whether a man seed or not, darkly or howsumdever, so long as the Lord made His views clear. And He's makin' 'em!” he added. “He's makin' 'em, Minister! Amen! so be it!” And quietly and courteously, ten minutes later, he was bidding his visitors welcome to Light Island, as if it were a kingdom, and he the crownless monarch of it. “It's a poor place, Lady!” he said, with a certain stately humility, as he helped Mrs. Morton out of the boat. “Good anchorage for a shipwrecked mariner like me, but no place for ladies or—or them as belongs to ladies.”
“O Captain January!” cried Mrs. Morton, who was a tall, fair woman, with eyes like Star's own. “What shall I say to you? I must seem to you so cruel, so heartless, to come and ask for the child whom you have loved and cared for so long. For that is what I have come for! I must speak frankly, now that I see your kind, honest face. I have come to take my sister's child, for it is my duty to do so.” She laid both hands on the old man's arm, and looked up in his face with pleading, tearful eyes.
But Captain January's face did not move as he answered, quietly, “It is your duty, Lady. No question o' that, to my mind or any. But,” he added, with a wistful look, “I'll ask ye to do it easy, Lady. It'll be sudden like for the—for the young lady. And—she ain't used to bein' took sudden, my ways bein' in a manner slow. You'll happen find her a little quick, Lady, in her ways, she bein' used to a person as was in a manner slow, and havin' to be quick for two, so to say. But it's the sparkle o' gold, Lady, and a glint o' diamonds.”
But the lady was weeping, and could not answer; so Captain January turned to her husband, who met him with a warm grasp of the hand, and a few hearty and kindly words.
“And now I'll leave ye with the minister for a minute, Lady and Gentleman,” the Captain said; “for Bob Peet is a-signallin' me as if he'd sprung a leak below the water line, and all hands goin' to the bottom.”
Bob, who had withdrawn a few paces after beaching his boat, was indeed making frantic demonstrations to attract the Captain's attention, dancing and snapping his fingers, and contorting his features in strange and hideous fashion.
“Well, Bob,” said the old man, walking up to him, “what's up with you, and why are ye h'istin' and lowerin' your jib in that onarthly fashion?”
Bob Peet seized him by the arm, and led him away up the beach. “Cap'n,” he said, looking round to make sure that they were out of hearing of the others, “I can't touch a lady—not seamanly! But 'f you say the word—knock gen'l'm'n feller—middle o' next week. Say the word, Cap'n! Good's a meal o' vittles t' me—h'ist him over cliff!”