“I can’t help how it strikes you,” broke in Alvin, who did not intend to accept any commands at this stage of the game. “Mike goes with us wherever we go.”
“I feel the same way,” added Chester. “The Deerfoot can never brave the perils of the deep short-handed. The first mate is indispensable.”
“As you please then. When will you be ready to start?”
“When do you wish us to start?”
“Say to-morrow morning?”
“This is so sudden,” said Alvin, whose spirits rose at the prospect of the lively times ahead. “We ought to have a little while to think it over. However, if my second mate, who generally has views of his own, will agree, we’ll get under way to-morrow after breakfast.”
“I’m wid ye, as Mike would say.”
“Suppose, Mr. Calvert, we leave it this way: if we decide to go into this business, we’ll make the venture to-morrow morning.”
“I shall stay at the Squirrel Inn to-night and be on the wharf a little before nine, on the lookout for you. If you do not show up then or soon after I shall not expect you. Your boat will be in plain view all the time, so I shall see you when you start.”
“Why not stay with us over night? We shall be glad to have you do so,” was the hospitable invitation of Alvin Landon.