Chapter Twenty One.
Among the Natives.
Steve walked back to the captain looking puzzled, and feeling damped by this sudden change, while his eyes gazed questioningly in his leader’s.
“What did I say to you?” cried Captain Marsham.
“I was to go up to the crow’s-nest and make observations,” replied the boy.
“Coolly, warily, and without excitement, because you were going to make a dangerous ascent, over what is ten times as slippery as glass.”
“Yes,” said Steve; “and I was going.”
“Going!” cried the captain angrily. “Yes, just as if you were about to run up somebody’s carefully sanded steps to the front door.”
“But I should have been as careful as could be as soon as I started, sir.”
“It looked like it. What do you say, doctor?”