Blow the Man Down - A Romance of the Coast

Then the acute realization was forced in upon him that he had the

general manager of the line to face. The captain had not caught sight

of his superior during the excitement; he wondered now why Mr. Fogg had

effaced himself so carefully.

The red coal of a cigar glowed in a corner of the pilothouse. From that

corner came curt inquiry: "Well, Captain Mayo, what have you got to say

about this?"

"I think I'll do my talking after I have had daylight on the

proposition, sir."

"Don't you have any idea how you happened to be off your course so far?"

asked Fogg, his anxiety noticeable in his tones.

"How do you know I was off my course?"

"Well--er--why, well, you wouldn't be aground, would you, if you hadn't

lost your way?"

"I didn't lose my way, Mr. Fogg."

"What did happen, then?"

"That's for me to find out."

"I'm not going to say anything to you yet, Captain Mayo. It's too

sudden--too big a blow. It's going to paralyze the Vose line." Mr. Fogg

said this briskly, as if he were passing small talk on the weather.

"I'm thankful that you're taking the thing so calmly, sir. I've been

dreading to meet you."

"Oh--a business man in these days can't allow himself to fly to pieces

over setbacks. Optimism is half the battle."

But Mayo, sitting there in that dark pilot-house for the rest of the

night, staring out into the blank wall of the fog and surveying the

wreck of his hopes, was decidedly not optimistic.