I say, Miss Dolly, Stinson's got to leave us, to-night, anyway,
or early to-morrow morning. I wish you'd put me in command. I do
so, don't you know. I understand everything about a boat. Pop has
belonged to the best clubs all his life and I'm an 'Ariel' myself--on
probation; that is, I've been proposed, only not voted on yet, and
I could sail this Lily to beat the band. Aw, come! Won't you?" he
finished coaxingly.

John Stinson was laughing, yet at the same time, deftly swinging both
boats toward the shore; while Jim Barlow's face was dark with anger,
Cap'n Jack was nervously thumping his crutches up and down, and even
gentle Melvin had retreated as far from the spot as the little tender
allowed. His shoulders were hunched in the fashion which showed him,
also, to be provoked and, for an instant Dorothy was distressed. Then
the absurdity of the whole matter made her laugh.

"Seems if everybody wants to be captain, on this bit of a ship that
isn't big enough for one real one! Captain Hurry, Captain Barlow,
Captain Blank, Captain Cook----"

"What do Barlow and Cook know about the water? One said he was a
'farmer,' and the other a 'lawyer's clerk'----"

"But a lawyer's clerk that's sailed the ocean, mind you, Gerald.
Melvin's a sailor-lad in reality, and the son of a sailor. You needn't
gibe at Melvin. As for Jim, he's the smartest boy in the world. He
understands everything about engines and machinery, and--Why, he can
take a sewing-machine to pieces, all to pieces, and put it together as
good as new. He did that for mother Martha and Mrs. Smith back home on
the mountain, and at San Leon, last summer, he helped Mr. Ford decide
on the way the new mine should be worked, just by the books he'd
studied. Think of that! And Mr. Ford's a railroad man himself and is
as clever as he can be. He knows mighty well what's what and he trusts
our Jim----"

"Dorothy, shut up!"

This from Jim, that paragon she had so praised! The effect was a
sudden silence and a flush of anger on her own face. If the lad had
struck her she couldn't have been more surprised, nor when Melvin
faced about and remarked:

"Better stow this row. If Captain Murray, that I sailed under on the
'Prince,' heard it he'd say there'd be serious trouble before we saw
land again. If we weren't too far out he'd put back to port and set
every wrangler ashore and ship new hands. It's awful bad luck to fight
at sea, don't you know?"

Sailors are said to be superst