"'Pon my word, lad, if you hadn't said so yourself, I'd scarce have believed it. You don't look like it just now, by no manner o' means."
"But I am, though," continued Corrie; "and I tell you that in order to show you that I am very, very much in earnest at this moment, and that you must give your mind to what I've got to say."
The boatswain was impressed by the fervor of the boy. He looked at him in surprise for a few seconds, then nodded his head, and said, "Fire away!"
"You know that Gascoyne is in prison!" said Corrie.
"In course I does. That's one rascally pirate less on the seas, anyhow."
"He is not so bad as you think, Dick."
"Whew!" whistled the boatswain. "You're a friend of his, are ye?"
"No, not a friend; but neither am I an enemy. You know he saved my life, and the lives of two of my friends, and of your own captain, too."
"Well, there's no denying that; but he must have been the means of takin' away more lives than what he has saved."
"No, he hasn't," cried Corrie, eagerly. "That's it, that's just the point; he has saved more than ever he took away, and he's sorry for what he has done; yet they're going to hang him. Now, I say, that's sinful—it's not just. It shan't be done, if I can prevent it; and you must help me to get him out of this scrape,—you must, indeed, Dick Price."