"If it is for my entertainment that you propose to tell me, I beg you'll spare yourself the trouble." It was not an answer that helped the captain.

He pulled at his pipe a moment.
"I was bidden," said he presently, "to carry you to Barbary and sell you there into the service of the Moors.

That I might serve you, I made believe to accept this task." "God's death!" swore Sir Oliver.

"You carry make-believe to an odd length." "The weather has been against me.

It were no intention o' mine to ha' come so far south with you.