Free Captain Caution by Kenneth Roberts Page A

That hasn't been destroyed, has it?"
    "Mr. Marvin," Slade said a little ceremoniously, "I think I must ask you to use another tone of voice when referring to my occupation. After all, Mr. Marvin, John Paul Jones himself saw nothing wrong in officering a vessel on the Middle Passage."
    "Is that an argument, Mr. Slade?" Marvin asked. "You can't make me respect the Portuguese by telling me that Vasco da Gama hailed from Portugall"
    Slade's voice was harsher than his words. "Any man who's had experience in these waters knows that it's doing a kindness to yonder poor black men to let them exchange the cruelties and sufferings of Africa for the comforts of a plantation."
    Marvin looked hard at Slade; then turned again to Corunna. "Why is it he's deserting his own vessel to travel on ours? He's got owners, hasn't he?"
    "He's traveling on the Olive Branch for good and sufficient reasonsl" Corunna informed him. "I'll have you know that Captain Diron and Captain Slade are doing these things out of the kindness of their hearts, and to question them is outrageous!"
    "I don't mean it so," Marvin said. "All I want, Corunna, is that you should give these things proper consideration. 'Tisn't in reason, Corunna, for Captain Diron to be asking favors of you for giving back the Olive Branch. She's yours anyway. He knows he couldn't keep the proceeds of her sale, because there isn't a prize court in America that would uphold him in it as long as you're alive to put in your claim."
    Slade cocked his head on one side to look out from under his drooping eyelid. "A sea lawyer!" he exclaimed.
    "'Tisn't so much that I mind going to France," Marvin continued. "What I mind is seeing you deprived of your freedom to do as you like when you need to do it. Here you're hampering yourself with promises you don't need to make, and weighing yourself down with a lot of wounded men, and you're setting off for a strange country to sell your cargo if you get there in a market that'll skin you if it has the chance."
    "You are speaking of the French markets?" Captain Diron
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    asked politely. "You have had unfortunate experiences with them, perhaps?"
    "No," Marvin admitted, "but I never heard of a market that was in business for our benefit. There's another thing, too," he told Corunna: "You're entitled to hold any opinion of me that you wish, but you know my family, and you know that when your father needed help, he turned to my father, just as mine turned to yours when he needed anything. When all's said and done, Corunna, we're neighbors, and maybe that might still mean something to you. Now, I want no trouble with these gentlemen; but without meaning any offence, one of 'em's a Frenchman and the other's a slaver; and it seems to me, Corunna, that it's a strange thing when a girl from Arundel feels obliged to take advice from a slaver and a Frenchman both of them gentlemen she never saw before."
    "Pooil" Argandeau exclaimed. "Now the slush bucket is kicked overt"
    Captain Diron shrugged his shoulders. "This poor young man," he said, smiling at Corunna, "I think he does not know he is being so what shall I sayP We call it gauche. It is a fault of your countrymen, I fear."
    "Oh," Corunna said, "it's shameful! To insult these gentlemen how can you stand there and say such things of them they, who only want to help me."
    "Wait, Corunnal" Marvin begged her. "Can't you see it must be themselves they're helping? It must be! You're the only one who stands a chance of losing anything! Why, if Captain Diron was so anxious to help you, he could convoy you home, couldn't he, instead of sending you off to France, near to four thousand miles?"
    "Of course," Captain Diron remarked pleasantly, "it might be disturbing for you if the young lady should be removed from your protection. I think it is possible you argue for your own benefit, oh?"
    Marvin pressed his lips tightly together. "Couldn't you?" he persisted. "Couldn't you convoy us home?"
    "You make me