Huntoon paled and his heart thumped against his ribs, but he kept saying to himself, "Yes, Peggy, I will do it. I promised you, and I must not fail."
At length, grasping the ghastly cup, he raised it and in a voice of strained gayety cried out,—
"Here's to The Reformation! She's a gallant vessel, as this day's work has proved."
"Ay, that she is, and fit to gladden the heart of any sailor in Christendom."
"Were you bred to the sea?"
"Not I."
"That's strange. You walk the deck as if you had had sea legs on since you gave up going on all fours."
"Ay, but that comes of natural bent and brains. Give a man brains enough and he can be anything from an admiral to a bishop. Now there was a time when I had thoughts of being a bishop myself."
"You?"
"Oh, you may smile, and I own there's not much in the cut of my jib to suggest its being made of the cloth, and this ring I wear being taken from the finger of a corpse in a merchantman would scarce do duty for the Episcopal symbol; but for all that I speak truth."