"What, won't she do, Sir Joseph?" the Captain asks disappointedly.
"No, no. I don't think she will. I have stooped as much as an Admiral ought to, by presenting my sentiments almost--er--you might say emotionally, but without success; and now really I----"
"Well, it must be your rank which dazzles her," the Captain suggests, and thinks how he would like to take a cat-o'-nine-tails to her.
"She is coming on deck," Sir Joseph says, softly, "and we might watch her unobserved a moment. Her actions while she thinks herself alone, may reveal something to us that we should like to know"; and Sir Joseph and the Captain step behind a convenient coil of rope while Josephine walks about in agitation and sings to herself how reckless she is to leave her luxurious home with her father, for an attic that, likely as not, will not even be "finished off."
Of course Sir Joseph and her father do not understand a word of this, but they understand that she is disturbed, and Sir Joseph steps up and asks her outright, if his rank overwhelms her. He assures her that it need not, because there is no difference of rank to be observed among those of her Majesty's Navy--which he doesn't mean at all except for one occasion only, of course. At the same time, it is an admirable plea for his rival Ralph.
Now it is rapidly becoming time for the elopement, and Josephine pretends to accept Sir Joseph's suit at last, in order to get rid of him at half-past ten. He and Josephine go below while Dick Deadeye intimates to the Captain that he wants a word with him aside.
Then Dick Deadeye gives the Captain his information, thus:
Kind Captain, I've important information, Sing hey, the gallant Captain that you are! About a certain intimate relation, Sing hey, the merry maiden and the tar!]
Kind Captain, your young lady is a-sighing, Sing, hey, the gallant Captain that you are! This very night with Rackstraw to be flying, Sing, hey, the merry maiden and the tar!
This information certainly comes in the nick of time, so the Captain hastily throws an old cloak over him and squats down behind the deck furniture to await the coming of the elopers.
Presently they come up, Josephine, followed by Little Buttercup, and all the crew on "tip-toe stealing." Suddenly amid the silence, the Captain stamps.