“Par derrière chez ma tante, Il’y a un bois joli, Et le rossignol y chante Et le jour et la nuit …
Que donneriez vous, belle, Qui l’amènerait ici? Je donnerai Québec, Sorel et Saint Denis.”
“How was it my French didn’t go, and your sign-talk did?” Harvey demanded when the barter had been distributed among the We’re Here s.
“Sign-talk!” Platt guffawed. “Well, yes, ’twas sign-talk, but a heap older’n your French, Harve. Them French boats are chock-full o’ Freemasons, an’ that’s why.”
“Are you a Freemason, then?”
“Looks that way, don’t it?” said the man-o’-war’s man, stuffing his pipe; and Harvey had another mystery of the deep sea to brood upon.