"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?"