But pirates,
especially Spanish ones, are supposed to be very handy with knives and
other fellows' girls."
"You see they did not consider me a prize."
"The rascals! Good job you missed that boat. Christobal has been
tellin' me all about it. They've gone under."
"Do you really think so?"
"Can't see any chance for them, Miss Maxwell."
"But we are almost as badly situated here?"
"Huh, not a bit of it. Lucky chap, Courtenay. He couldn't lose a ship
if he tried. She 'd follow him 'cross country like that pup. Look at
me: lost three, all brand new from the builders. One foundered, one
burnt, an' one stuck on the Goodwins. I'm careful, steady as any man
can be, but no owner would trust me with a ship now, unless she was a
back number, an' over-insured. Even then my luck would follow me. I
'd bring that sort of crazy old tub through the Northwest passage. So
I'm first mate, an' first mate I'll remain till my ticket gives out."
A good deal of this was Greek to Elsie. But she knew that Boyle was a
man of curt speech, unless deck hands required the stimulus of a tongue
lashing.
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