"I want to go to Port Arthur, to-night."
"Impossible, why it's ten o'clock now."
"Well, I want to start at once."
"Won't Norfolk Bay do you? It's only eight miles away: just a nice walk."
"Why Norfolk Bay?"
"Why, because Port Arthur lies outside, and to go there you have to face open sea, and it looks like blowing a bit. While if you go to Norfolk Bay, you are under shelter."
"I see; the boat is hardly big enough for the open sea."
"What! this boat! Go along with yer. I'd cross the Atlantic in her. She'd face—"
"All right. Eight miles is not much of a walk. Can you start at twelve sharp? And if a fiver will squeeze matters so that we can return to-morrow—"
"That'll do, sir. Twelve sharp it is. Now then boy, fire up like—"