Dick smiled again.
“Hast ever known me denied aught I desired?” he said, his voice pleasant and smooth.
Blueneck shook his head.
“Nay,” he said, “but, Lord, what’s a silly wench, sir? She can have no interest for thee.”
“Ah, thou hast hit it, dog, ’tis that exactly which the lass has for me—interest—interest greater than I ever felt for any other woman.”
Blueneck laughed and turned the laugh into a cough.
Dick looked at him, smiling shyly.
“Ah! you may laugh, friend of the unshaven neck,” he said, “but as I told you this is so. Never have I been denied so much by any woman, and at last I find a game that makes the prize worth having. The end of a certainty will be the same but the wooing is half the pleasure, eh, dog?”
Blueneck grinned as he fingered the ribbon, which he had brought from Tiptree, and they went on together down to the brig where Dick gave orders for the ceremony for renaming the Coldlight.
Meanwhile, up at the Ship everything was bustle. French had returned and was entertaining the company with the story of the night’s adventures, and Anny and Sue were kept busy serving rums and preparing the midday meal.