"I was quite interested in that story you told about him."
"I didn't tell no great story; I merely told how he had gone out in his boat, and how neither he nor his boat was ever seen again."
"You said you did not believe he was dead."
"Well, I never did believe he was drowned. Of course he is dead now, for he was twenty years older than me, but he had hard luck."
"Things went against him?"
"Not in one way; Jake was a very successful man as a fisherman, and he had money in the bank when he died, but he was very unlucky for all that."
"Will you tell me how he was unlucky?"
"You appear to be interested."
"I am."
"You are?"