Why, what is the matter?"
"Oh, Mr. Dodd," sobbed Lucy, "she has told me all you have gone
through, and I am the wicked, wicked cause!"
David groaned. "If I didn't think as much. I heard the mill going. Ah!
Eve, my girl, your jawing-tackle is too well hung. Eve is a good
sister to me, Miss Lucy, and, where I am concerned, let her alone for
making a mountain out of a mole-hill. If you believe all she says, you
are to blame. The thing that went to my heart was to see my skipper
run out his stunsel booms the moment he saw me overhauling him; it was
a dirty action, and him an old shipmate. I am glad now I couldn't
catch her, for if I had my foot would not have been on the deck two
seconds before his carcass would have been in the Channel. And pray,
Eve, what has Miss Fountain got to do with that? the dirty lubber
wasn't bred at her school, or he would not have served an old messmate
so.
"Belay all that, and let's hear something worth hearing. Now, Miss
Lucy, you tell me--oh, Lord, Eve, I say, isn't the thundering old
dingy room bright now?--you spin me your own yarn, if you will be so
good. Here you are, safe and sound, the Lord be praised! But I left
you under the lee of that thundering island: wasn't very polite, was
it? but you will excuse, won't you? Duty, you know--a seaman must
leave his pleasure for his duty. Tell me, now, how did you come on?
Was the vessel comfortable? You would not sail till the wind fell? Had
you a good voyage? A tiresome one, I am afraid: the sloop wasn't built
for fast sailing.
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