Page:Cup of Gold-1929.djvu/94

thought, and it was not preparing him to be an expert sailor. It was necessary for him to learn avidly, for in the near future he must go a-buccaneering and take a Spanish town. This was the silver throne of all his desire.

And so, one evening———

"There is a thing I should like to be speaking of, sir."

James Flower raised his eyes from his book and laid his head back in the chair.

"If we had a ship to carry our product to Jamaica," Henry continued, "we should be saving a large deal in freightage. The cost of such a ship would soon enough be eaten away by the profits. Too, we might carry the produce of the other plantations at a smaller fee than the merchantmen ask."

"But where might one come on such a ship?" James Flower inquired.

"There is one in the harbor now, one of two masts and———"

"Then buy her; buy her, and see to it. You know more about these things than I do. By the way, here is an interesting conjecture on the inhabitants of the moon. 'They may not be totally unlike human beings,' he read. 'Their necks could easily be———'"

"It will be seven hundred pounds, sir."

"What will be seven hundred pounds? You seem not to pay attention as you used, Henry. Do listen to this paragraph; it is bot entertaining and instructive———"