The men took up the gauntlet. They considered themselves challenged. Notwithstanding the secret conviction that the women were right, they stood united in defence of their action. Nothing that Percival could say or do moved them. He tramped from one group of toilers to another, always meeting with the same grins and laughter when he suggested that they wait until Mrs. Cruise was able to approve or disapprove of the name they had chosen.
“Good gosh!” cried one of the sailors. “Are you goin' to give in to the women, boss?”
“Well, I've been thinking it over, boys. I guess we were a little too officious. We meant well, God knows, but after all, Betty Cruise ought to be consulted,—now, oughtn't she?”
“Sure,” cried any number of them cheerfully. “It's her kid.”
“Well, there you are,” he rejoined persuasively.
“But how do we know she won't be tickled to death with our name? She'd ought to be. It's purtier than any name I can think of,” argued Jack Wales, a sailor. “When she's well enough, we'll tell her the kid's name is Doraine, and—”
“She won't hold back a second, boss, when she finds out that you picked it for her,” broke in another. “Only a couple o' days ago she was sayin' to one of the other women in my hearin' that if it was a boy she was goin' to call him Percival,—and she didn't know what on earth she'd do if it was a girl. Said she'd probably have to call it after her mother and she didn't like her mother's name a little bit.”
“I know, but after all, we did butt in a trifle too soon with our—”
“For God's sake, don't let any of these here women hear you talk like that, boss,” groaned Jack Wales. “They'll think we're beginning to hedge. We got to stand together in this thing. If we don't, they'll rule this camp sure as you're a foot high. I don't give a dern what the kid's name is, far as I'm concerned, but on principle, boss, it's just got to be Doraine. Doraine she is an' Doraine she stays.”
Every one of them was good-humoured about it. They were taking it as a rare and unexpected bit of politics. The thrill of opposition invested them. They scoffed at surrender.