That long sleep of ours, we said, was really something laughable; we laughed at the recollection of it, a lamentable piece of merriment.
Our artfulness and patience becoming exhausted, for the captain had vouchsafed us no direct answer, I said at last, 'Captain Welsh, here we are on board your ship will you tell us what you mean to do with us ?' He now said bluntly, 'I will.' 'You'll behave like a man of honour,' said I, and to that he cried vehemently, 'I will.' 'Well, then,' said I, 'call out the boat, if you please; we're anxious to be home.' 'So you shall!' the captain shouted, 'and per ship--my barque Priscilla; and better men than you left, or I 'm no Christian.' Temple said briskly, 'Thank you, captain.' 'You may wait awhile with that, my lad,' he answered; and, to our astonishment, recommended us to go and clean our faces and prepare to drink some tea at his table.
'Thank you very much, captain, we'll do that when we 're on shore,' said we.
'You'll have black figure-heads and empty gizzards, then, by that time,' he remarked.

We beheld him turning over the leaves of a Bible.
Now, this sight of the Bible gave me a sense of personal security, and a notion of hypocrisy in his conduct as well; and perceiving that we had conjectured falsely as to his meaning to cast us on shore per ship, his barque Priscilla, I burst out in great heat, 'What! we are prisoners?
You dare to detain us ?' Temple chimed in, in a similar strain.

Fairly enraged, we flung at him without anything of what I thought eloquence.
The captain ruminated up and down the columns of his Bible.
I was stung to feel that we were like two small terriers baiting a huge mild bull.

At last he said, 'The story of the Prodigal Son.' 'Oh!' groaned Temple, at the mention of this worn-out old fellow, who has gone in harness to tracts ever since he ate the fatted calf.
But the captain never heeded his interruption.
'Young gentlemen, I've finished it while you 've been barking at me.
If I 'd had him early in life on board my vessel, I hope I'm not presumptuous in saying--the Lord forgive me if I be so!--I'd have stopped his downward career--ay, so!--with a trip in the right direction.

The Lord, young gentlemen, has not thrown you into my hands for no purpose whatsoever.