“Rather annoying,” muttered Courtenay, who did not much like being called “young gentleman.”
“A chair for the young gentleman,” continued the captain of the schooner. “Starboard a little, Mr Jones,—there is rather too much cable out, till the tide makes stronger. I presume you are not used to kedging, captain. It’s a very pretty thing, as you will acknowledge. Starboard yet. Give her the helm quick, Mr Thompson. Why, sir, do you know that I was once very nearly on shore on the tail of this very bank, because a young lady, who was going up to Calcutta, would take the helm? The mate could not prevent her—she refused to let it go; and, when I commanded her, told me, with a laugh, that she could steer as well as I could. I was obliged to prove to her, in rather an unpleasant manner, that I was captain of my own ship.”
“Why, you did not flog her, did you, captain?”
“Why, no, not exactly that; but I was obliged to jerk the wheel round so quick, that I sprained both her wrists before she had time to let it go. It very near produced a mutiny. The girl fainted, or pretended to do so, and all the gentlemen passengers were in high wrath—little thinking, the fools, that I had saved their lives by what they called my barbarity. However, I told them, as soon as the danger was over, that I was captain of my own ship. Sweet pretty girl too, she was. We were within an inch of the bank, the tide running like a sluice, and should have turned the turtle the moment that we had struck. Such a thing as carrying politeness too far. If I had not twisted the wheel out of her hands as I did, in two minutes more the alligators would have divided her pretty carcase, and all the rest of us to boot. No occasion for that, Captain M—. There’s plenty of black fellows for them floating up and down all day long, as you will see.”
“They throw all their dead into the river, do they not?”
“All, sir. This is a continuation of the sacred river, the Ganges, and they believe that it insures their going to heaven. Have you never been in India before?”
“Never.”
“Nor these three gentlemen?”
“Neither of them.”
“Oh, then,” cried the captain, his face brightening up at the intelligence, as it gave him an opportunity of amusing his passengers; “then, perhaps, you would not object to my explaining things to you as we go along?”