"I don't say that a ship, once out of sight, cannot be made away
with--though even that, with a crew to tell tales, has beaten some of
the cleverest heads; but to take out a ship and fill her up with
treasure, and bring her home _and unload her without any one's
knowing_--that's a feat that (if you'll excuse me) I've heard a
hundred liars discuss at one time and another; and one has said it
can be done in this way, and another in that, but never a one in my
hearing has found a way that would deceive a child."
"Yet you said, a moment since, that Miss Plinlimmon had given the
sense of it?"
"I did, ma'am. I am saying that to fetch this treasure will be
difficult, even if we find it--"
"You don't doubt its existence?"
"I do not, ma'am. I doubt it so little, ma'am, that I would ten
times sooner engage to find than to fetch it. But I don't even
despair of fetching it, if the lady goes on being as clever as she
has begun."
"What?" exclaimed Plinny. "I? Clever?"
"Yes, indeed, ma'am," Captain Branscome answered, still in a slow,
measured voice. "But, indeed, too, I might have been prepared for it
when you started by taking a line that beats all my experience of
landsmen; or perhaps in this case I ought to say lands_ladies_.
Pages:
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226