"And how many masts will the ship have?" questioned one of the boys.
"Three, Master Jack," answered Hartop; "for 'tis a ship royal, like unto the _Defiance_ that is now lying in Plymouth."
"Then we must e'en have an admiral's flag made for her," said little Jack. "Mother shall make one for us out of the piece of silk that she cut from off Bertha's belt."
"Nay, but we agreed that the ship should be named the _Pilgrim_," objected the eldest of the boys. "For the _Pilgrim_ is father's ship, and she hath but two masts."
"The number of her masts and the name she shall have are matters for yourselves to determine," said Hartop, as he held the boat in front of him bow-on and glanced with one eye along her deck. "The only matter that doth at present concern me is her hull, and when 'tis done, as I promise you it shall be on the morrow, then the rigging of the craft will remain for other hands than mine, for ere she is ready to be launched I shall be far away upon the seas."
He continued to hew at the boat's hull with his knife, shaving down her bows to the required degree of roundness.
"Thou'lt not forget the string of coral beads you did promise me," said Jack's sister Mary, after a long pause of silence.
"Ay, faith, I'll mind on't, truly," answered Jacob with a smile; "and if luck doth follow us, thou shalt have a goodly chain of pearls into the bargain."
"And wilt bring me home one of those green poll-parrots, or one of the long-tailed monkeys that you told us of?" pleaded one who stood at his knee.
"Ay, surely; I'll bring thee a whole ship-load of such trumpery an Captain Grenville will but let me," returned the old man.
"What!" interposed Ambrose Pennington, turning round on his chair. "Art for going out with the fleet, then, friend Hartop?"
"Ay," he answered. "A life on land hath but few joys for such as me, I find, and I am for having just one cruise more with the buccaneers and another sight of the palm-trees. And yet," he added, "'tis less of my own wish than by the will of Sir Richard Grenville that I go; for he hath besought me to accompany him, since 'tis supposed that I know more than most men touching the purpose of this present expedition."
Pennington drew his chair nearer to the old man and sat facing him, bending forward in attention with his two hands clasped between his knees.