So here was a weak and conceited youth of fine faculties and fine impulses, between the malign aspects of two opposite stars--watched, that is, and speculated upon by two able and unprincipled men; the one, Mr. Molken, searching him and ingratiating himself with him, "to the end to know how to worke him, or winde him, or governe him," which, Lord Bacon goes on to say, "proceedeth from a heart that is double and cloven, and not entyre and ingenuous;" the other, Mr. Stopper, watching his conduct, not for the sake of procuring advantage to himself, but injury to Thomas. The one sought to lead him astray, that he might rob him in the dark; the other sought a chance of knocking him down, that he might leave him lying in the ditch. And they soon began to play into each other's hands. CHAPTER XVII. CAPTAIN BOXALL'S PROPOSAL. About three weeks before the occurrences last recorded, the following conversation took place between Richard and John Boxall over their wine: "I tell you what, brother," said the captain, "you're addling good brains with overwork. You won't make half so much money if you're too greedy after it. You don't look the same fellow you used to." "I hope I'm not too greedy after money, John. But it's my business, as your's is to sail your ship." "Yes, yes. I can't sail my ship too well, nor you attend to your business too well. But if I was to sail two ships instead of one, or if I was to be on deck instead of down at my dinner when she was going before the wind in the middle of the Atlantic, I shouldn't do my best when it came on to blow hard in the night." "That's all very true. But I don't think it applies to me. I never miss my dinner, by any chance." "Don't you turn your blind eye on my signal, Dick. You know what I mean well enough. I've got a proposal to make--the jolliest thing in the world." "Go on. I'm listening." "Mary ain't quite so well again--is she now?" "Well, I don't think she's been getting on so fast. I suppose it's the spring weather." "Why, you may call it summer now. But she ain't as I should like to see her, the darling." "Well, no. I must confess I'm sometimes rather uneasy about her." "And there's Jane. She don't look at home, somehow."