'I hope to get away by the end of next month, sir.'
'Your little ships, I understand, which are not passenger vessels, often sail very deeply loaded and are unsafe in that way,' said my father.
'There can be nothing wrong with a man's freeboard, sir, when his cargo is what mine's going to be next trip: stout, brandy, whisky, samples of tinned goods, a lot of theatre scenery, builder's stuff like as doors and window frames, patent fuel and oil-cake.'
'Gracious, what a mixture!' cried his wife.
'What I suppose is termed a general cargo?' said my father; 'not the best of cargoes in case of fire.'
'What cargo is good when it comes to that, sir?' asked Captain Burke, smiling. 'We must never think of risks at sea any more than we do ashore. To my fancy there's more peril in a railway journey from here to London than in a voyage from the Thames round the world.'
'Miss Otway must be under somebody's care, Sir Mortimer,' said Mrs. Burke.
'How do you think she looks?'