"Sure, sor, she's compelled to be married like to a man she hates, and it hurts her falings as much as it does mine, and she wants me to get her away and make a rale marriage of it, such as a respectable woman likes; for ye see, all against her will, she's obliged to be Misthress Mazzard now, and there hasn't been any praste." "I understand," said Humphrey. "The scoundrel!" "Well, yes, sir, that's what he is; but by the same token I don't wonder at it, for if a man stood bechuckst good and avil and Misthress Greenheys was on the avil side, faix, he'd be sure to go toward the avil--at laste, he would if he was an Oirishman." "Then you will!" "Yis, sor, for the lady's sake; but I shall have to give up my share of the good things here, and behave very badly to the captain." "My good fellow, I will provide you for life." "That's moighty kind of you, sor, and I thank ye. Yis, I'll do it, for, ye see, though I don't want to behave badly to the captain, Black Mazzard's too much for me; and besides, I kape thinking that if, some day or another, I do mate wid an accident and get dancing on the toight-rope, I sha'n't have a chance of wedding the widdy Greenheys, and that would be a terrible disappointment to the poor darlin'." "Yes, yes," cried Humphrey, impatiently. "Then tell me. You will help me by getting a boat ready, and we can all go down together and put to sea!" "Hark at him!" said Dinny, with a laugh, after going to the great curtain and peering into the corridor. "Ye spake, sor, like a gintleman coming out of his house and calling for a kyar. Lave that all to me." "I will, Dinny; but what do you propose doing, and when!" "What do I propose doing, sor? Oh! it's all settled. The darlin' put an idee in my head, and it's tuk root like a seed." "Trust a woman for ingenuity!" cried Humphrey, speaking with the authority of one who knew, though as to women's ways he was a child. "Ah, an' she's a cliver one, sor!" "Well, what is it, Dinny?" cried Humphrey, excitedly. "Be aisy, sor, and lave it to us. The darlin' has set her moind on getting away from Black Mazzard, and she's too gintle a crature to go to extremities and tuk his head off some night like the lady did in the tint, or to handle a hammer and a nail and fix his head to the ground. She don't like to be too hard upon him, sor, so she proposed a plan to me, and it will be all right." "But, Dinny--" "Be aisy, sor, or ye'll spoil all. Jist wait quite riddy, like, till some avening I shall come to ye all in a hurry, hold up me little finger to ye, which will mane come, and ye'll foind it all cut and dhried for ye." "But, my good fellow--" "Faix, sor, don't go on like that before I've done. I want to say that ye must be at home here riddy. If the skipper asks ye to dinner, don't go; and if ye hear a big, powerful noise, don't git running out to see what it is, but go on aisy like, saying to yerself, `Dinny's getting riddy for me, and he may come at anny time.'"