“Wind, sir? Don’t know, sir.”
“Then go and see, sir,” the captain roared, wrathfully; “damme, what are you here for except to know what way the wind is?”
The man returned looking rather sulky.
“The wind is southerly, sir.”
“Southerly, is it?” Captain Bradshaw said; “well, I am no wiser, as far as I know, than I was before.”
“I think, uncle,” Alice said, gently, “the best plan will be to go down to the sea; the sailors there will know what wind a ship is most likely to put in here with, and how long she will be with such weather as this in coming round from London.”
“Certainly, Alice; let us start at once.”
The questioning was, at Alice’s request, left to her, for her uncle’s impatient hastiness would have rendered it a far more difficult process. They went up to a sailor, leaning upon the seawall, and looking through a telescope at some vessels in the offing.
“Would you kindly tell us whether vessels sailing from London to Australia, and not being bound to put in here, would be likely to do so with the wind blowing as at present?”
The sailor touched his hat.