“I suppose so, sir, because it did come and take him off. That’s all I knows about it.”
“Had you no jaw with the gentleman? You wasn’t mum the whole time you was in the boat with him?”
“Not a bit of it, sir. Silence and I doesn’t agree together long, so we talked most of the time.”
“And what did the stranger say of the brig?”
“Lord, sir, he catechised me like as if I had been a child at Sunday-school. He asked me how long I had sailed in her; what ports we’d visited, and what trade we’d been in. You can’t think the sight of questions he put, and how cur’ous he was for the answers.”
“And what did you tell him in your answers? You said nothin’ about our call down on the Spanish Main, the time you were left ashore, I hope, Jack?”
“Not I, sir. I played him off surprisin’ly. He got nothin’ to count upon out of me. Though I do owe the Molly Swash a grudge, I’m not goin’ to betray her.”
“You owe the Molly Swash a grudge! Have I taken an enemy on board her, then?”
Jack started, and seemed sorry he had said so much; while Spike eyed him keenly. But the answer set all right. It was not given, however, without a moment for recollection.
“Oh, you knows what I mean, sir. I owe the old hussy a grudge for having desarted me like; but it’s only a love quarrel atween us. The old Molly will never come to harm by my means.”