“If you’ve got to command, you don’t have to ask your men first if it’s right, before you give the command.”
“Of course not,” yelled Somers.
But Jack was musing for the moment.
“What?” he shouted, as he woke up.
“No,” yelled Somers.
A further muse, amid the roar of the waves.
“Do the men know better than the officers, or do the officers know better than the men?” he barked.
“Of course,” said Somers.
“These damned politicians—they invent a cry—and they wait to see if the public will take it up. And if it won’t, they drop it. And if it will, they make a mountain of it, if it’s only an old flower-pot.”
“They do,” yelled Somers.