If the woman was dead I was to say nothing and come back.

If she was alive I was to tell the captain, his father, where a letter could reach him.

They had some bad blood 'twixt 'em, but he didn't tell me what it was about.

He may come home here to live, or he may go back to the mines; it's just how the old man takes it.

That's what I've got to say to him.