ow she was alive. Some men
have consciences, and even a lord, I suppose, is a man."

"The present earl has far too good a time of it to worry about running a
conscience. No, I bet he fights like a thief for the plunder, however
clear a case we have to show him. And as he's the man in possession and
has plenty of ready cash for law expenses, the odds are he'll turn out
too big to worry at through all the courts, and we shall compromise.
I'd like that best myself. Cash down has a desirable feel about it."

"It has, sir," said Kettle with a reminiscent sigh. "Even to pocket a
tenth of what is rightfully yours is better than getting mixed up with
that beastly law. But will the other relatives of the young lady, those
that are employing you, I mean, agree to that?"

"Don't I tell you, Captain, I'm on my own hook? There are no other
relatives--or at least none that would take a ha'porth of interest in
Teresa's getting the estates. I've gone into the thing on sheer spec,
and for what I can make out of it, and that, if all's well, will be the
whole lump."

"But how? The young lady may give you something in her gratitude, of
course, but you can't expect it all."

"I do, though, and I tell you how I'm going to get it. I shall marry the
fair Teresa. Simple as tumbling off a house."

Kettle drew himself up stiffly and walked to the other end of the
bridge, and began ostentatiously to look with a professional eye over
his vessel.

Wenlock was quick to see the change. "Come, what is it now, Captain?" he
asked with some surprise.

"I don't like the idea of those sort of marriages," said the little
sailor, acidly.

Wenlock shrugged his shoulders good-humoredly.

"Neither do I, and if I were a rich man, I wouldn't have dreamed of it.
Just think of what the girl probably is: she's been with those niggers
since she was quite a kid; she'll be quite uneducated; I'm in hopes
she's good-looking and has a decent figure; but at the best she'll be
quite unpresentable till I've had her in hand for at least a couple of
years, if then. Of course you'll say there's 'romance' about the thing.
But then I don't care tuppence about romance, and anyway it's beastly
unconfortable to live with."

"I was not looking at that point of view."

"Let me tell you how I was fixed," said Wenlock with a burst of
confidence. "I'd a small capital. So I qualified as a solicitor, and put
up a door-plate, and waited for a practice. It didn't come. Not a cl