“Well, we want to get on now.”
The captain smiled.
“Go and ask your father what he thinks.”
“Yes; come with me.”
The captain humoured him, and they walked aft to where the awning cast its grateful shade.
“Here, father, hadn’t we better have the steam up and get on?”
“I hardly think so, Jack. What do you say, captain; will the calm last?”
“Only till sundown, sir; then I think we shall have a nice soft breeze again.”
“Then I say no, Jack,” said Sir John. “We’re quite hot enough, and it does not seem fair to the men to send them down making roaring fires when there is so little need.”
“You’d be getting brown on both sides at once, Jack,” said the doctor. “Look yonder; fish rising. What do you say to having a try?”