“Yes, ye do.”
“Eh! do I? Let me see.”
Here the mad skipper scrutinised the lad’s face earnestly.
“Well, I have seen ye afore now, but you’ve ’scaped from me, youngster.”
“I’m Billy, alias the Bu’ster, alias the Cork, alias Gaff—”
“What, Billy Gaff? Dead and come alive again!” cried Haco, springing up and seizing the youngster’s hand.
Having wrung Billy’s arm almost off his shoulder, Haco took him up to his berth, where he made him sit down on the bed and recount all his and his father’s adventures from beginning to end.
When Billy had concluded the narrative, which of course he gave only in brief outline, Haco said—
“Now, lad, you and I shall go have a pipe outside, and then we’ll turn in.”
“Very good; but I have not yet asked you about your daughter Susan. Is she still with Captain Bingley?”