"Johnny, I believe you have lost your mind since coming here. What is this I have got my hand on?"
"The capstan."
Dick here laid his hand on a battered old capstan, around which how many hardy seamen had tramped singing "Reuben Ranzo" or some other roaring song of the sea.
"Don't you know how this works?"
"Not exactly."
"I will tell you. You see this bar?"
Dick with his foot kicked a battered but stout bar lying at the foot of the capstan.
"There! one end of the cable to which the anchor is hitched goes round this capstan, you see. Now, if I stick this bar into that hole in the capstan and shove her round--I mean the bar--the capstan will go round too, and that will wind up that cable and draw on the anchor. Don't you see?"
"Yes, I see."
"Well, now we are ready. I will sing something like real sailors."