“But it ain’t that sort o’ lesson I mean, Billy,” said Mr Jones, who was somewhat amused at the indignant tone in which all this was said. “The lesson I want you to learn is this: I want you to git off by heart what you and I are doin’, an’ going to do, so that if you should ever come to be questioned about it at different times by different people, you might always give ’em the same intelligent answer,—d’ye understand?”
“Whew!” whistled the boy, opening his eyes and showing his teeth; “beaks an’ maginstrates, eh?”
“Just so. And remember, my boy, that you and I have been doin’ one or two things together of late that makes it best for both of us to be very affectionate to, and careful about, each other. D’ye understand that?”
Billy Towler pursed his little red lips as he nodded his small head and winked one of his large blue eyes. A slight deepening of the red on his cheeks told eloquently enough that he did understand that.
The tempter had gone a long way in his course by that time. So many of the folds of the thin net had been thrown over the little thoughtless victim, that, light-hearted and defiant though he was by nature, he had begun to experience a sense of restraint which was quite new to him.
“Now, Billy,” continued Jones, “let me tell you that our prospects are pretty bright just now. I have effected an insurance on my sloop and cargo for 300 pounds, which means that I’ve been to a certain great city that you and I know of, and paid into a company—we shall call it the Submarine Insurance Company—a small sum for a bit of paper, which they call a policy, by which they bind themselves to pay me 300 pounds if I should lose my ship and cargo. You see, my lad, the risks of the sea are very great, and there’s no knowing what may happen between this and the coast of France, to which we are bound after touching at Ramsgate. D’ye understand?”
Billy shook his head, and with an air of perplexity said that he “wasn’t quite up to that dodge—didn’t exactly see through it.”
“Supposin’,” said he, “you does lose the sloop an’ cargo, why, wot then?—the sloop an’ cargo cost somethin’, I dessay?”
“Ah, Billy, you’re a smart boy—a knowing young rascal,” replied Mr Jones, nodding approval; “of course they cost something, but therein lies the advantage. The whole affair, sloop an’ cargo, ain’t worth more than a few pounds; so, if I throw it all away, it will be only losing a few pounds for the sake of gaining three hundred. What think you of that, lad?”
“I think the Submarine Insurance Company must be oncommon green to be took in so easy,” replied the youngster with a knowing smile.