“Nor I,” said Sir John, watching his son’s movements, “but I begin to feel as if I should like to be doing something active. What’s Jack about?”
The answer came in the boy’s voice, heard distinctly enough in the clear air,—
“I say, don’t take the sails down, Captain Bradleigh,” he said; “the wind may come again soon.”
“Not before sundown,” replied the captain, “and then we shan’t want stuns’ls.”
“But it might!”
“Yes, and it might come with a sudden touch of hurricane, my lad. We’re getting where dangers lie pretty quickly, and we old sea-going folk don’t like to be taken unawares.”
“What would it do then if a touch of hurricane did come?”
“Perhaps take our masts short off by the board before we could let everything go. Not nice to have half our canvas stripped away. You haven’t been at sea so long as I have, squire.”
“No, of course not,” said Jack impatiently. “But I say, why don’t you get up steam?”
“Because we want to keep our coal for an emergency, or when we want to get on.”