ery."

"Hum! so, Mr. Sam Coffin, when you're cruising for information, you
overhaul the women's papers first and foremost."

"Why you see, Captain Hazard, if you ask one of these men here a civil
question, all you can get out of the critter is that d--d 'quien sabe,'
and blast the any thing else."

"Can sarvy! why that sounds like Chinaman's talk; what does it mean?"

"It means 'who knows,' and that's the way they answer pretty much all
questions."

"Well, what was't you was going to say about the girl?"

"Well, the old woman told me the girl's mother was an Englishwoman."

"I told you she wasn't clear Spanish--and being a girl, so, why she
takes altogether after the mother."

"And the old woman said furdermore, that her mother wasn't a Catholic;
she was a what-d'ye-call-'em."

"A Protestant, I s'pose you mean."

"Yes, yes, a Protestant--that's it. Well, you see, her mother did not
die till this girl, her darter, was nigh upon sixteen years old, and
it's like the old lady eddicated her arter the same religion she was
brought up in herself."

"Aye, now I begin to see into it all."

"Well, so you see, as nigh as I can make out, for the old woman wouldn't
talk right out--only kept hinting along like."

"Hum! a woman generally can _hint_ a d--d sight more than when she
speaks right out."

"Well, so it seems this Isabella, being half English and whole
Protestant, won't exactly steer by their compass in religious matters."

"Poor girl! poor innocent little creature!"

"Well, I got a talking 'long with the old woman, and, arter a good deal
of trouble, I got hold of pretty much the whole history about this 'ere
girl. So she told me, amongst other things, that the girl's uncle
wanted her to marry one of them officers that was aboard that day."

"Which of them?"

"That thundering cockroach-legged thief, that was copper-fastened with
gold lace and brass buttons chock up to his ears, with a thundering
great broadsword triced up to his larboard quarter and slung with brass
chains."

"Ah! I recollect him."

"And so do I, blast his profile. He cut more capers than the third mate
of a Guineaman over a dead nigger, and went skylarking about decks like
a monkey in a china-shop."

"I took notice that he looked marline-spikes at Mr. Morton for paying so
much attention to the girl."

"Aye, that he did; but I worked him a traverse in middle latitude,
sailing on that tack. I got him and the rest on 'em into the st