“Any hour you like to name, sir.”
“Ten then,” said Sir John. “Of course we can easily find a boatman to take us off?”
“At ten o’clock, sir, a boat will be waiting for you at the pier end,” said the captain in a sharp businesslike tone. “Good-evening, gentlemen. Weather seems to be settling down for fine. My glass is very steady.”
“Hah!” said the doctor, “I rather like that man.”
“I don’t,” said Jack sharply. “He is insufferable. He treated me as if I were a child.”
Sir John raised his brows a little in surprise to hear his son speak so sharply.
“Don’t judge rashly, Jack,” he said. “You don’t know the man yet; neither do I; but he impressed me as being a very frank, straightforward fellow, one of Nature’s rough gentlemen.”
“Would you mind my going to bed, father?” said Jack hastily. “I am very tired.”
“Go then, and have a good long night’s rest.”
“Yes,” said the doctor; “and I say, Jack, leave your window open. Sea-air is a splendid tonic.”