CHAPTER 6
Proposal of MarriageShortly after I had finished my supper, Captain Smith sent for me. He was sitting at the table with Lieutenant Webster, drinking watered-down ale and appearing very angry when I arrived. He thanked me for coming.
“The Lieutenant has conveyed to me your request to go upriver. I hope you haven’t got it in your head to get rich.”
I denied that any such notion had entered my thoughts.
“Good,” he said, “because I’ve decided that you should go. That blockhead West will need someone of your skills and good sense, and you should know that you are going with him at my insistence. He thinks he is going to show me by dragging that assembly of gentlemanly rogues and common street ruffians upriver. He thinks I don’t know what he’s up to.”
The captain let out a short l
