“I know,” said the Captain, “but I promised you should have a fair brick house in the Green Lane, to the north, and I mean that you shall have it. Adam, you are the something I have been waiting for, but what with my worrying, over thinking you probably dead, I have never realized the truth till this night.”
“And what may it be my privilege to do?” said Adam.
“Go with me to recover a fortune, sunk in a wreck. She rests on a reef in the Bahamas, in a few fathoms of water. She was laded with gold and went down with every ounce. I’ve got the maps, and now that I’ve got you, bless your heart, we can sail in a week!”
“And how have you learned of this sunken treasure?” said Adam, who for some reason appeared not at all boyishly eager to set off on this new adventure. “Has somebody given you this tale and the maps as the price for a well-built brig?”
“I had the information from a Spaniard, who died at my ship-yard,” said Phipps. “He was the sole survivor of the wrecked vessel. I gave him work. He was grateful. Death seized him suddenly, but before the end came, he told me his tale, he said, as a measure of gratitude, directing me to feel in his pockets for the maps, which I did. I have waited for what I now am certain was your return.”
“Well,” said Adam, thoughtfully, twisting the ends of his small mustache, “you couldn’t easily have paid me a greater compliment, I am sure; but, my dear friend, you place me in an awkward position.”
“Awkward position? What awkward position?” said Phipps. “Here you are a good swordsman, a man of some knowledge, and the companion I would select of all the men I know.” Here Adam bowed solemnly. “Now what is to hinder us from making this venture together? What do you mean by this awkward position business?”
“I mean,” said the rover, “that I seem to serve no better purpose, the moment I return to Boston, than to separate you two good people. Now I am sensitive about a thing like that. I don’t like to be the cause of such a separation.”
“What nonsense, you——” started the Captain.
“I prepared my mind for William’s adventure, long ago,” interrupted Mrs. Phipps. “If he doesn’t go with you, he will go with some one else. And as long as he is bent on going in the end, I should feel so much better, Adam, if you were with him.”