"You lookin' for me? I'm Captain Holt. What kin I do for ye?" asked the captain in his quick, imperious way.
"That's what he said, sir," rejoined Tod, bringing himself to an erect position in deference to his chief.
The stranger rose from his seat and took his cap from his head.
"I'm out o' work, sir, and want a job, and I thought you might take me on."
Tod was now convinced that the stranger was a foreigner. No man of Tod's class ever took his hat off to his superior officer. They had other ways of showing their respect for his authority—instant obedience, before and behind his back, for instance.
The captain's eyes absorbed the man from his thick shoes to his perspiring hair.
"Norwegian, ain't ye?"
"No, sir; Swede."
"Not much difference. When did ye leave Sweden? You talk purty good."
"When I was a boy."