Mr Rogers managed to lift his hand a little way to meet Captain Cai's
grasp. "Eh? Eh? I've been moored here since breakfast on the look-out
for 'ee." He spoke indistinctly by reason of his paralysis.
"They brought word early that the _Hannah Hoo_ was in, and I gave orders
straight away for a biled leg o' mutton--_with_ capers--_an'_ spring
cabbage. Twelve-thirty we sit down to it, it that suits?"

"Thank 'ee, I should just say it _did_ suit! . . . You got my last
letter, posted from the Azores?"

"To be sure I did. I've taken the two houses for 'ee, what's more, an'
the leases be drawn ready to sign. . . . But where's your friend?
He'll be welcome too--that is, if you don't hold three too many for a
leg o' mutton?"

"'Bias Hunken? . . . You didn't reckon I was bringing him along with me,
did you?"

"I reckoned nothin' at all, not knowin' the man."

"Well, he's at West Indy Docks, London,--or was, a week ago. I saw it
on 'The Shipping Gazette' two days before we left the Mersey: the _I'll
Away_, from New Orleans; barquentine, and for shape in tonnage might be
own sister to the _Hannah Hoo_; but soft wood and Salcombe built.
I was half fearing 'Bias might get down to Troy ahead of me."

"He hasn't reported himself to _me_, anyway. . . . But we'll talk about
him and other things later on."

Mr Rogers dismissed the subject as the Quaymaster came sidling up to
join them. Mild gossip was a passion with the Quaymaster, and
eavesdropping his infirmity.

"Well, Cap'n Cai, and so you've hauled ashore--and for good, if I hear
true?"

"For good it is, please God," answered Captain Cai, lifting his hat at
the word. He was a simple man and a pious.

"And a householder you've become already, by all accounts. I don't set
much store by Town Quay talk as a rule--"

"That's right," interrupted Mr Rogers. "There's no man ought to know
its worth better than you, that sets most of it goin'."

"They _do_ say as you've started by leasin' the two cottages in Harbour
Terrace."

"Do they?" Captain Cai glanced at the ship-chandler for confirmation.
"Well, then, I hope it is true."

"'Tis nothing of the sort," snapped Mr Rogers. Seeing how Captain Cai's
face fell, he added, "I may be wrong, o' course, but I reckon there was
_two_ tenants, and they wanted a cottage apiece."

"Ah, to be sure!" agreed the honest captain, visibly relieved.

But the Quaymaster persisted. "Yes, yes; there was talk of a friend o'
you