“I am an invalid, Griffin,” Covell himself explained cheerfully. “You may not think it to look at me, but I am. I am down here for my health and my health and I are having a grand old time of it so far, thanks to the captain--and Esther. I believe the idea is that eventually Captain Townsend is to put me to work somewhere at something or other, but just now I am an invalid, strong enough only to enjoy life and sing in light opera. Esther is responsible for the opera part of it. On her head be it. She knows most of our audience personally, provided we have an audience--and I don’t, so I shall be the most care-free sailor that ever spliced the main brace. Is ‘splicing the main brace’ correct, Captain Townsend?” Foster Townsend, with a chuckle, declared it sounded all right to him. It was evident that his visitor had already captured his fancy. Esther, who had been watching Bob intently, now spoke. “The Welfare Society has persuaded Seymour to take the part of _Ralph Rackstraw_ in our ‘Pinafore’ play,” she said, quickly. “It is ever so kind of him to do it and I am sure I don’t know what we should have done if he had refused. There is nobody else in town, or near it, who can sing that part as it should be sung.” Covell lifted a hand in protest. “Between you and me, Griffin,” he said, with a doubting shake of the head, “that ‘care-free’ business I boasted of is all counterfeit. I am shaking in my shoes. These good people don’t know what they have been let in for. By the time I get to the place in that performance where I announce that I ‘go to a dungeon cell,’ I’m betting that the audience will be perfectly satisfied to have me go there, provided I don’t come back. Oh, Josephine!” with a laughing glance at Esther, “I am sorry for you!”