, he succeeded better.

"Carnaby has been a faithful agent," he continued, "and by his reports, it
would seem that our confidence has not been misplaced. If fame speaks
true, there is not a more dexterous navigator of the narrow seas than
thyself, Master Skimmer. It is to be supposed that your correspondents on
this coast, too, are as lucrative as I doubt not they are numerous."

"He who sells cheap can never want a purchaser. I think your lordship has
no reason to complain of prices."

"As pointed as his compass! Well, Sir, as I am no longer master here, may
I ask the object of this interview?"

"I have come to seek your interest in behalf of one who has fallen into
the grasp of the Queen's officers."

"Hum--the amount of which is, that the cruiser in the bay has entrapped
some careless smuggler. We are none of us immortal, and an arrest is but a
legal death to men of your persuasion in commerce. Interest is a word of
many meanings. It is the interest of one man to lend, and of another to
borrow; of the creditor to receive, and of the debtor to avoid payment.
Then there is interest at court, and interest in court--in short, you must
deal more frankly, ere I can decide on the purport of your visit."

"I am not ignorant that the Queen has been pleased to name another
governor over this colony, or that your creditors, my lord, have thought
it prudent to take a pledge for their dues, in your person. Still, I must
think, that one who stands so near the Queen in blood, and who sooner or
later must enjoy both rank and fortune in the mother country, will not
solicit so slight a boon as that I ask, without success. This is the
reason I prefer to treat with you."

"As clear an explanation as the shrewdest casuist could desire! I admire
your succinctness, Master Skimmer, and confess you for the pink of
etiquette. When your fortune shall be made, I recommend the court circle
as your place of retirement. Governors, creditors, Queen, and
imprisonment, all as compactly placed, in the same sentence, as if it were
the creed written on a thumb-nail! Well, Sir, we will suppose my interest
what you wish it.--Who and what is the delinquent?"

"One named Seadrift,--a useful and a pleasant youth, who passes much
between me and my customers; heedless and merry in his humors, but dear to
all in my brigantine, because of tried fidelity and shrewd wit. We could
sacrifice the profits of the voyage, that he were free. To me he is a
necessa