Bad news, bad news to our captain came
That grieved him very sore;
But when he knew that all of it was true,
It grieved him ten time more,
Brave boys!
It grieved him ten times more!
--Cold Greenland.
Morning brought to him neither cheer nor counsel. The winds swept the
fog off the seas, and the brightness of the sunshine only mocked the
gloom of Captain Mayo's thoughts.
He was most unmistakably far off his course. He took his bearings
carefully, and he groped through his memory and his experience for
reasons which would explain how he came to be away up there on Hedge
Fence. Two of the masts of the sunken stone-schooner showed above the
sea, two depressing monuments of disaster. He took further bearings and
tested his compass with minute care. So far as he could determine it was
correct to the dot.
It was a busy forenoon for all on board the steamer. The revenue cutters
took off the passengers. Representatives of the underwriters came out
from Wood's Hole on a tug. The huge Montana, set solidly into its bed
of sand, loomed against the sky, mute witness of somebody's inefficiency
or mistake.
Late in the day Captain Mayo and General-Manager Fogg locked themselves
in the captain's cabin to have it out.
When the master had finished his statement Mr. Fogg flicked the ash from
his cigar, studied the glowing end for a time, and narrowed his eyes.
"So, summing it all up, it happened, and you don't know just how it
happened. You were off your course and don't know how you happened to be
off your course. You don't expect us to defend you before the steamboat
inspectors, with that for an explanation, Mayo?"
"All I can do is to tell the truth at the hearing, sir."
"They'll break you, sure as a mule wags ears. There are five dead
men inside that wreck yonder. Don't you reckon you'll be indicted for
manslaughter?"
"I shall claim that the collision was unavoidable."
"But you were off your course--were in a place you had no business to be
in. That knocks your defense all to the devil. You are in almighty bad,
Mayo. You must wake up to it."
The young man was pale and rigid and silent.
"The Vose line is in bad enough as it is, without trying to defend you.
I suppose I'll be blamed for putting on a young captain. Mayo, I am
older than you are and wiser about the law and such matters. Why don't
you duck out from under, eh?"