"I can't send them. I am bothered so much I can't do anything," she
stammered.
"Oh, forget your business, skipper," advised one of the party.
"It is not my business, sir." He laid the packet of messages before the
operator on her little counter and tapped his finger on them. "They must
go," he repeated.
"In their turn," warned the yachtsman, showing that he resented this
intrusion. "And after the party is over!"
"I intended to confine my conversation to this young lady," said Mayo.
He turned and faced them. "But I have been here long enough to see that
you gentlemen are interfering with the business of this office. Perhaps
your messages are not important. Mine are."
The yachtsman was not sober nor was he judicious. "Go back to your job,
young fellow," he advised. "You are horning in among gentlemen."
"So am I," squawked Mr. Speed, with weather eye out for clouds of any
sort.
Captain Mayo gave his supporter a glance of mingled astonishment and
relish. "We'd better not have any words about the matter, gentlemen,''
he suggested, mildly.
"Certainly not," stated the spokesman. "If you'll pass on there'll be no
words--or anything else."
"Then we'll dispense with words!" The quick anger of youth flared in
Mayo. The air of the man rather than his words had offended deeply.
"You'd like to have this room to yourself so that you can attend to your
business, I presume?" he asked the operator.
"Yes, I would."
Oakum Otie laid his folded paper upon the packet of Captain Mayo.
"You will leave the room gentlemen," advised the captain.
Mr. Speed thrust out his bony elbows and cracked his hard fists
together. "I have never liked dudes," he stated. "I have been brought up
that way. All my training with Cap'n Epps has been that way."
"How do you fit into this thing?" demanded one of the yachtsmen.
"About like this," averred Mr. Speed. He grabbed the young man by both
shoulders and ran him out into the night before anybody could interfere.
Then Mr. Speed reappeared promptly and inquired, "Which one goes next?"
"I think they will all go," said the captain.
"Come on," urged one of the party. "We can't afford to get into a brawl
with natives."
"You bet you can't," retorted Oakum Otie. "I hain't hove bunches of
shingles all my life for nothing!"