NAT--I don’t know. But I could guess a lot of things. [_With sudden excitement._] Ambergris! That’s it! Is that it? It must be. That’s what you’ve been hunting for years. BARTLETT--Aye--and never found! [_He gets to his feet with a forced burst of laughter._] Ambergris! Ye fool of a boy! Ye got that notion out o’ some fool book ye’ve been reading, didn’t ye? And I thought ye’d growed to be a man! [_More and more wild in his forced scorn._] Ye’ll be tellin’ me next it’s buried treasure I be sailin’ after--pirates’ gold buried on that island--all in a chest--and a map to guide me with a cross marked on it where the gold is hid! And then they be ghosts guardin’ it, ben’t they--spirits o’ murdered men? They always be, in the books. [_He laughs scornfully._] NAT--[_Gazing at him with fascinated eyes._] No, not that last. That’s silly--but I did think you might have found-- BARTLETT--[_Laughing again._] Treasure? Gold? [_With forced sternness._] Nat, I be ashamed of ye. Ye’ve had schoolin’, and ye’ve been doin’ a man’s work in the world, and doin’ it well, and I’d hoped ye’d take my place here to home when I be away, and look after your Ma and Sue. But ye’ve owned up to bein’ little better nor a boy in short britches, dreamin’ o’ pirates’ gold that never was ’cept in books. NAT--But you--you’re to blame. When you first came home you did nothing but talk mysteriously of how rich we’d all be when the schooner got back. BARTLETT--[_Roughly._] But what’s that to do with silly dreams? It’s in the line o’ trade I meant. NAT--But why be so mysterious about trade? There’s something you’re hiding. You can’t say no because I feel it. BARTLETT--[_Insinuatingly--with a crafty glance at his son._] Supposin’ in one of them Eastern trading ports I’d run across a bit o’ business with a chance for a fortune in it for a man that wasn’t afeerd of the law, and could keep his mouth shut? NAT--[_Disappointed._] You mean illegal trading? BARTLETT--I mean what I mean, Nat--and I’d be a fool to tell an overgrown boy, or two women--or any man in the world, for the matter o’ that--what I do mean. NAT--[_Turning toward the door in the rear--disgustedly._] If it’s only that, I don’t want to hear it. [_He walks toward the door--stops and turns again to his father._] No, I don’t believe it. That’s not like you. You’re not telling the truth, Pa. BARTLETT--[_Rising to his feet--with a savage sternness in which there is a wild note of entreaty._] I’ve listened to your fool’s talk enough. Get up to the house where ye belong! I’ll stand no more o’ your meddling in business o’ mine. I’ve been patient with ye, but there’s an end to that! Take heed o’ what I’m sayin’, if ye know what’s good for ye! I’d rather see ye dead tonight than sail on that schooner at dawn. I’d kill ye with my own hands first! [_With a sort of sombre pride._] I’ll stand alone in this business and finish it out alone if I go to hell for it. Ye hear me?