"I don't like to think that, Carl, any more than you do, but we're going it blind and ought to consider carefully anything we hear."
"Right-o, matey," said Dick. "What have you heard that makes you think the girl and her uncle are not dealing on the square with us?"
"Miss Harris said that her Uncle Archibald Townsend's real name is Harris, and——"
"Dot might be, Matt, for ve know dot Downsent uses odder names schust as he——"
"Wait a minute, Carl. Miss Harris also told us that her mother's maiden name was Sixty, and that Captain Sixty was her mother's brother."
"Also that Townsend was her father's brother," chimed in Dick. "I don't see anything wrong about that."
"Then," continued Matt, "Captain Sixty started to call Sadie Harris, Ysabel, but tried to explain away the break when the girl looked at him. The captain also said that Miss Harris' mother was of Spanish origin, and whoever heard of Spaniard by the name of Sixty? Furthermore, if the captain is a brother of Miss Harris' mother, then the captain ought to be a Spaniard himself."
It was hard for Carl to follow this line of reasoning, although Matt made it as clear as he could. Dick, however, grasped the point Matt had brought up.
"Shiver me!" he exclaimed. "It's a wonder I didn't see that myself. The old bucko stepped over his chalk mark, and the girl hustled him away before he could say anything more. Great kedge anchors! What sort of a deal are we in on, anyhow? The girl's yarn don't hold together, and it was Sixty himself who let the cat out of the bag. What's to be done? We could have the captain set us ashore, and then we could make our way back to New Orleans and have a talk with Townsend."
"No, I don't think we'd better do that. After all, Dick, it may be that Townsend has fixed this thing up, and that the girl and the captain are talking according to instructions."