BARTLETT--[_Menacingly._] Take heed, Sarah, o’ what ye’re sayin’! I’m your husband ye’ve sworn to obey. By right I kin order ye, not ask. MRS. BARTLETT--I’ve never refused in anything that’s right--but this be wicked wrong. BARTLETT--It’s only your stubborn woman’s spite makes ye refuse. Ye’ve christened every ship I’ve ever been skipper on, and it’s brought me luck o’ a kind, though not the luck I wanted. And we’ll christen this one with your own name to bring me the luck I’ve always been seekin’. MRS. BARTLETT--[_Resolutely._] I won’t, Isaiah. BARTLETT--Ye will, Sarah, for I’ll make ye. Ye force me to it. MRS. BARTLETT--[_Again trying to get up._] Is this the way you talk to me who’ve been a good wife to you for more than thirty years? BARTLETT--[_Commandingly._] Wait! [_Threateningly._] If ye don’t christen her afore she sails, I’ll take Nat on the vige along with me. [MRS. BARTLETT _sinks back in her chair, stunned_.] He wants to go, ye know it. He’s asked me a hundred times. He s’spects--’bout the gold--but he don’t know for sartin. But I’ll tell him the truth o’ it, and he’ll come with me, unless-- MRS. BARTLETT--[_Looking at him with terror-stricken eyes--imploringly._] You won’t do that, Isaiah? You won’t take Nat away from me and drag him into sin? I know he’ll go if you give him the word, in spite of what I say. [_Pitifully._] You be only frightenin’ me! You can’t be so wicked cruel as that. BARTLETT--I’ll do it, I take my oath--unless-- MRS. BARTLETT--[_With hysterical anger._] Then I’ll tell him myself--of the murders you did, and-- BARTLETT--[_Grimly._] And I’ll say ’twas done in fair fight to keep them from stealin’ the gold! I’ll tell him your’s is a woman’s notion, and he’ll believe me, not you. He’s his father’s son, and he’s set to go. Ye know it, Sarah. [_She falls back in the chair hopelessly staring at him with horrified eyes. He turns away and adds after a pause._] So ye’ll christen the Sarah Allen in the mornin’ afore she sails, won’t ye, Sarah? MRS. BARTLETT--[_In a terrified tone._] Yes--if it’s needful to save Nat--and God’ll forgive me when He sees my reason. But you--Oh, Isaiah! [_She shudders and then breaks down, sobbing._] BARTLETT--[_After a pause, turns to her humbly as if asking her forgiveness._] Ye mustn’t think hard o’ me that I want your name. It’s because it’s a good woman’s name, and I know it’ll bring luck to our vige. I’d find it hard to sail without it--the way things be. MRS. BARTLETT--[_Getting to her feet--in a state of feverish fear of him._] I’m goin’ to home. BARTLETT--[_Going to her._] I’ll help ye to the top o’ the hill, Sarah. MRS. BARTLETT--[_Shrinking from him in terror._] No. Don’t you touch me! Don’t you touch me! [_She hobbles quickly out of the door in the rear, looking back frightenedly over her shoulder to see if he is following as_ [_The Curtain Falls_] ACT THREE