a first-rate idea if it could be worked
out. It would want a lot of scheming, but I don't see why it should
not be done. If I could once get her on board, I could cruise about
with her for any time, until she gave in."

"You would have to get a fresh crew, Carthew. I doubt whether your
fellows would stand it."

"No, I suppose some of them might kick. At any rate, I would not
trust them. No, I should have to find a fresh crew. Foreigners
would be best, but it would look uncommonly rum for the Phantom to
be cruising about with a foreign crew. Besides, I know men in
almost every port I should put into."

"Couldn't you alter her rig, or something of that sort, so that she
could not be recognised? It seems to me that if you were to take
her across to some foreign port, pay off the crew there and send
them home, then get her altered and ship a foreign crew, you might
cruise about as long as you liked, especially abroad, without a
soul being any the wiser; and the girl must sooner or later give
in, and if she would not you could make her."

"That is a big idea, Jim. Yes, if I once got my lady on board you
may be sure that she would have to say yes sooner or later. I don't
often forgive, and it would be a triumph to make her pay for the
dressing down she gave me this morning. Besides, I am really fond
of her, and I could forgive her for that outbreak, which I suppose
was natural enough, after we were married, and there is no reason
why we should not get on very well together.

"I tell you what, I will go down the first thing tomorrow to
Southampton, and will sail at once for Ostend. There I will pay her
off, alter her rig, and ship a fresh crew. I will draw my money
from the bank. If things go well, I shall be set up again. If they
go badly, there will be some long faces at Tattersall's on settling
day, but I shall be away, and the money will be enough if we have
to cruise for a couple of years, or double that, before she gives
in.

"I shall try mild measures for a good bit; be very respectful and
repentant and all that. If I find after a time that that does not
fetch her, I must try what threats will do. Anyhow, she won't leave
until she steps on shore to be married, or safer still, till I can
get a clergyman on board to marry us there. Would you like to go
with us?"

"If the thing bursts up, there is nothing I should like better."

"You will have to help me carry her off, Jim, and the day that she
signs her name B