Deakin frowned upon his questioner. His eyes glimmered in a way that Crawford misliked; they glinted with suspicion, with crafty search, with a slow and heavy pondering. “Not to my knowledge,” he made answer at length, “and I should know if any man does. Last year the French ships drove me far up to the nor’west, where I talked with Injuns. This folly of a south sea passage means naught.” So positive was Deakin’s tone, so filled with assured conviction were his words, that Crawford could not but feel in this moment that he had been following a false trail. Deakin should know--that was true. If Deakin said no passage existed, then it might well be accepted as a fact. While Crawford puffed in frowning silence, however, Deakin now continued with an abrupt change of topic and manner. “What’s to hinder me keeping you here while my men go take your ship? There’s two hundred pound for you in Boston, dead or alive. You ha’ gold aboard, and supplies that are worth more than gold in these parts. What’s to hinder, eh?” Crawford’s thin lips emitted a thin cloud of smoke. “Try it and see. What’s two hundred pound and the loot of a bark, as against a winter’s stock o’ furs? A poor gamble, Cap’n Deakin. My men would give you as good as they got.” Deakin’s teeth shone through his beard, and his eyes smouldered darkly. “I’ll swallow no such tale of a south sea passage. H’m! You’ve not been i’ the bay before, neither; but what about Frontin, your lieutenant--eh? Ay, I’ve heard of that French pirate! And sink me, but that explains it well enough, that does!” “Explains what?” asked Crawford, somewhat astonished by these heavy ruminations. “Your being here. No doubt Frontin caught some thread o’ the tale; likely, the French Company’s men heard it from the redskins. And you’re just fool enough to go look into it. Fool! H’m! You and your star--honest enough in that folly, too! Ye did wrong to show me that star, for I have a nose to scent with. Warlock, that’s what ye are, and I can see it all now. You have heard the tale, but so have I.” “Eh?” Crawford was suddenly alert, as the dog who scents unseen game. “What tale?” “The Star Woman, o’ course!” With an air of irritated finality, as though he had found the answer to a troublous problem, Deakin lifted his mug and drained it. He banged down the pewter, licked his hairy lips, grunted savagely. Then he continued, his gaze fastened on Crawford. “Ay, the Star Woman! Makes ye jump, eh? I’ve guessed it, sure enough. Little you know of her, though; while I’ve seen her--if not in the flesh, then otherwise. No white man has seen her in the flesh, and few enough o’ the red devils; oh, ye cunning liar! It’s not nor’west that you’re seeking, but west and south. Well, whilst French and English are there, neither you nor I will do much looking in that direction. Dost know there’s a host of ships behind us in the straits, icebound?”