el.
Below, I say!"

"These gentlemen know the _Polly_, and they will find out the name of
the man who commands her, and I don't propose to have it said that the
Candages are heathens," she declared, firmly. "If you do not apologize,
father, I shall apologize for you." She tried to crowd past him to the
rail, but he clapped his brown hand over her mouth and pushed her back.
His natural impulse as commander of his craft dominated his feelings as
a father.

"I'll teach ye shipboard discipline, Polly Candage," he growled, "even
if I have to take ye acrost my knee."

"Hold on there, if you please, captain," called the spokesman of the
yachtsmen.

Captain Candage was hustling his daughter toward the companionway. But
there was authority in the tone, and he paused and jutted a challenging
chin over his shoulder.

"What have any of you critters got to say about my private business?"

The formality of the man in the tender was a bit exaggerated in his
reply. "Only this, sir. We are going away at once before we bring any
more trouble upon this young lady, to whom we tender our most respectful
compliments. We do not know any other way of helping her. Our protests,
being the protests of gentlemen, might not be able to penetrate; it
takes a drill to get through the hide of a rhinoceros!"

The skipper of the _Polly_ did not trouble himself about the finer
shadings in that little speech, but of one fact he felt sure: he
had been called a rhinoceros. He released his daughter, yanked the
marlinespike away from Otie, who had been holding himself in the
background as a reserve force, and stamped to the rail. He poised his
weapon, fanning it to and fro to take sure aim. But the engineer had
thrown in his clutch and the speed boat foamed off before the captain
got the range, and he was too thrifty to heave a perfectly good
marlinespike after a target he could not hit, angry as he was.

The girl faced her father. There was no doubting her mood. She was a
rebel. Indignation set up its flaming standards on her cheeks, and the
signal-flames of combat sparkled in her eyes.

"How did you dare to do such a thing to me--those gentlemen looking on?
Father, have you lost your mind?"

Otie expressed the opinion tinder his breath that the captain, on the
contrary, had "lost his number."

Otie's superior officer was stamping around the quarterdeck, kicking at
loose objects, and avoiding his daughter's resentful gaze. There was
a note of i