s me, or thinks he does!--if Sir Timothy had only known that
he was sending you out to fight the _Barracouta_, he would have given
you, if not a bigger ship, at least twice as heavy an armament, and
twice as strong a crew. So, when he comes to hear your story, he will
not blame you for failing to take me; have no fear of that. Therefore,
because I feel convinced that your ill-success in your fight with me
will in nowise prejudice your professional prospects, it is my
intention, all being well, to take you to sea with me next trip, and
either put you ashore somewhere whence you can easily make your way to
Port Royal, or else to put you aboard the first ship bound for Kingston
that we may chance to fall in with.

"But to provide against any possibility of your fortunes going awry, I
have decided to make you my heir; therefore--stop a moment, please; I
think I can guess what you would say--that you positively refuse to have
anything whatever to do with wealth acquired by robbery and murder.
Quite right, my dear boy, it is precisely what I should expect--ay, and
wish--you to say. But when I was an Englishman I sometimes used to hear
people say that `circumstances alter cases'; and this is one of them.
The wealth that I propose to bequeath to you has not been acquired by me
through any objectionable practices, it came to me through the merest
accident, and nobody is aware of its existence save Lotta and myself.
If it is indeed a pirate hoard, as is not at all unlikely, there is
nothing to prove that such is the case; nor, assuming for the moment
that it is so, is there anything to tell us either the name of the
pirate who got it together, or the names of those from whom he took it.
And, in any case, if it is the spoils of a pirate gang, they must have
operated about a hundred years ago; and since they are now all
undoubtedly dead and gone, as also are those from whom it was taken, you
have as much right to it as anybody, and may as well have it. Lotta
will show you where it lies concealed; and, since I shall never make use
of it, you are at liberty to help yourself to the whole of it as soon as
you please.

"There is one thing more that I wish to say to you. It is about Lotta.
By the way, what do you think of Lotta?" he interrupted himself to
enquire.

"I think she is the sweetest, most charming, and most lovely girl that
has ever lived!" I exclaimed enthusiastically, for I had fully availed
myself of my opportuniti