"I tell you that you have no business running out into this mess that is
making from east'ard."
"If you have been so much and so mighty in your time, then you
understand that a captain takes orders from nobody when he's on board
his own vessel."
"I understand perfectly well, sir. I'm not giving orders. But my own
life is worth something to me and I have a right to tell you that you
are taking foolhardy chances. And you know it, too!"
Captain Candage's gaze shifted. He was a coaster and he was naturally
cautious, as Apple-treers are obliged to be. He knew perfectly well that
he was in the presence of a man who knew! He had not the assurance to
dispute that man, though his general grudge against all the world at
that moment prompted him.
"I got out because they drove me out," he growled.
"A man can't afford to be childish when he is in command of a vessel,
sir. You are too old a skipper to deny that."
"I was so mad I didn't stop to smell weather," admitted the master,
bracing himself to meet a fresh list of the heeling Polly. He
evidently felt that he ought to defend his own sagacity and absolve
himself from mariner's culpability.
"Very well! Let it go at that! But what are you going to do?"
"I can't beat back to Saturday Cove against this wind--not now! She
would rack her blamed old butts out."
"Then run her for Lumbo Reach. You can quarter a following sea. She
ought to ride fairly easy."
"That's a narrow stab in a night as black as this one is."
"I'll make a cross-bearing for you. Where's your chart?" Mayo exhibited
a sailor's alert anxiety to be helpful.
"I 'ain't ever needed a chart--not for this coast."
"Then I'll have to guess at it, sir." He closed his eyes in order to
concentrate. "You gave a course of sou'west by sou'. Let's see--it was
nine-fifteen when I just looked and we must have logged--"
"It ain't no use to stab for such a hole in the wall as Lumbo Reach,"
declared Candage in discouraged tones.
"But you've got your compass and I can--"
"There ain't no depending on my compass within two points and a half."
"Confound it, I can make allowance, sir, if you'll tell me your
deviation!"
"But it's a card compass and spins so bad in a seaway there ain't no
telling, anyway. In my coasting I haven't had to be particular."