She shot an edged look at him, but his expression was innocence itself. "He will reach England before us."
"Then you don't think he'll board us and make us all walk the plank?" asked the Tyro in an apparent agony of relief.
"Don't get flip—" cried the exasperated lady—"pant," she added barely in time—"with me. Mr. Wayne will be in England waiting for you."
"Anyway, he can't eat me," the Tyro comforted himself. "Shall I hide in the stoke-hole? Shall I disguise myself as a rat and go ashore in the cargo? What do you advise?"
"I advise you to keep away from Miss Wayne."
"Yes. You did that before. At present I'm doing so."
"Then continue."
"I shall, until we reach solid earth."
"There my responsibility will cease. Mr. Wayne will know how to protect his daughter from upstart fortune-hunters."
The Tyro regarded her with an unruffled brow. "Never hunted a fortune in my life. A modest competence is the extent of my ambition, and I've attained that, thanking you for your kind interest."