"I think I'll be obliged to do it alone, sir. You can't tell in the dark
where I have left off. However, I'm glad to see that you're coming back
to your senses," he added, a bit caustically.
The master of the Polly received that rebuke with a meekness that
indicated a decided change of heart. "I reckon me and Otie and Dolph
have been acting out what you might call pretty pussylaminous, as I
heard a schoolmarm say once," confessed the skipper, struggling with the
big word. "But we three ain't as young as we was once, and I'll leave it
to you, sir, if this wasn't something that nobody had ever reckoned on."
"There's considerable novelty in it," said Mayo, in dry tones, running
his fingers over the rib to find the saw-scarf. The ache had gone out of
his arms, and he was ready to begin again.
"I'm sorry we yanked you into all this trouble," Can-dage went on. "And
on the other hand, I ain't so sorry! Because if you hadn't been along
with us we'd never have got out of this scrape."
"We haven't got out of it yet, Captain Candage."
"Well, we are making an almighty good start, and I want to say here in
the hearing of all interested friends that you're the smartest cuss I
ever saw afloat."
"I hope you will forgive father," pleaded Polly of the Polly. He felt
her breath on his cheek. She was so near that her voice nearly jumped
him. "I don't mean to get in your way, Captain Mayo, but somehow I feel
safer if I'm close to you."
"And I guess all of us do," admitted Captain Candage.
Mayo stopped sawing for a moment. "What say, men? Let's be Yankee
sailors from this time on! We'll be the right sort, eh? We'll put this
brave little girl where she belongs--on God's solid ground!"
"Amen!" boomed Mr. Speed. "I have woke up. I must have been out of my
mind. I showed you my nature when I first met you, Captain Mayo, and I
reckon you found it was helpful and enterprising. I'll be the same from
now on, even if you order me to play goat and try to butt the bottom out
of her with my head." "Me, too!" said Smut-nosed Dolph.