me as plain as if he'd bin a
lawyer an' a parson rolled into one. The difficulty's overcome: there's
nothing of it left: it don't exist."

Sartoris' eyes opened wider and wider as he gazed in astonishment at the
Pilot, who continued, "Yes, Sartoris, you well may look, for I'm goin'
to tell you something you don't expect. You are to have another ship. I
have letters here as warrant me in saying that: you shall have command
of another ship, as soon as you land in England."

"D'you mean to say your brother has forgiven the wreck of _The Witch_?
You must be dreaming, Summerhayes."

"Probably I am. But as soon as you reach home, Sartoris, there's a ship
waitin' for you. That ends the matter."

He turned abruptly to Scarlett.

"There's something I have to say to you, young feller. My gal, here,
came to me, the night before last--when some one we know of was in a
very queer street--she came to me, all of a shake, all of a tremble,
unable to sleep; she came to me in the middle of the night--a thing
she'd never done since she was six years old--an' at first I thought it
was the hysterics, an' then I thought it was fever. But she spoke plain
enough, an' her touch was cool enough. An' then she began to tell
me"----

"Really, father," Rose exclaimed, her cheeks colouring like a peony,
"_do_ stop, or you'll drive me from the room."

"Right, my dear: I say no more. But I ask you, sir," he continued,
turning to Scarlett. "I ask _you_ how you diagnose a case like that.
What treatment do you prescribe? What doctor's stuff do you give?" There
was a smile on the old man's face, and his eyes sparkled with merriment.
"I put it to you as a friend, I put it to you as a man who knows a
quantity o' gals. What's the matter with my dar'ter Rose?"

For a moment, Jack looked disconcerted, but almost instantly a smile
overspread his face.

"I expect it arose from a sudden outburst of affection for her father,"
he said.

But here Sartoris spoilt the effect by laughing. "I suspect the trouble
rose from a disturbed condition of the heart," said he, "a complaint not
infrequent in females."

"An' what, Cap'n, would you suggest as a cure?" asked the Pilot; his
eyes twinkling, and his suppressed merriment working in him like the
subterranean rumbling of an earthquake.

"Cast off the tow-rope, drop the pilot, and let her own skipper shape
her course"--this was the advice that Sartoris gave--"to my mind you've
been a-towin' of her too long."