annoyed. "Going? Dammit, you can't. Look at
the crowd I've got now. You mustn't do it."

"I must. They are a thin lot, but you could push the old _Medea_ along
with anything. I've got another ship. My reason is very good, from the
way I look at it."

Hanson turned his grin to me. He was going to enjoy the privilege of
seeing his reasons deemed unreasonable. "Don't think it's a better job
I've got. It's worse. It's a very rummy voyage. We may complete it,
with luck. It's a boat-running lunacy, and some mining gear. She's
called the _Cygnet_. I've been over her, and we shall call her something
different before we see the last of her."

"Then why are you going?" I asked him.

"To see what will happen. . . ."

Macandrew interrupted him. "What? And you next on the list for Chief?
You're romantic, young man, and that means you're no engineer. Is there
a lot of money in it?"

"There isn't, but there's some life. I want to know what I'm made of.
Shall I ever learn it under you? Down below in the _Medea_ is like
winding up a clock and going to sleep. Do you know the _Cygnet_ has six
inches of freeboard?" He was talking to me, but kept glancing sideways
to see what effect this had on Macandrew. But Macandrew's broad back was
impassive.

"Six inches of freeboard, barring her false bulwarks of deal boards, and
she's going out to--I forget the name of the place, but I could show you
where it is within a hundred miles on a map that doesn't give its name.
It's up the Pondurucu."

Macandrew made no sign, and Hanson, his humour a little damped, spoke
more seriously. "I don't think she'll ever get there, but it will be
interesting to see where she stops, and why."

Macandrew heaved round on his junior. "There's drivel. It sounds well
from an engineer and a mathematician, doesn't it?" He turned away again.
"Supposing," he said, over his shoulder, "supposing you pull this ship
through all right, then where will you be? Any better off?"

"I think so," said Hanson. He couldn't talk to Macandrew's back, so he
bent over me and pointed a challenging finger at my necktie. "I've never
risked anything yet, not even my job. This is where I do it. It'll be
nice to attempt something when the odds are that you can't finish it, and
there's nothing much in it if you do. Why," he said, grinning at his
Chief's back, "if I were to stay with him I'd become so normal that I'd
slip into marriage and safety as a mat