“But is there no other way farther along?” cried the King.
“The only other way is for me to hail a barge or a flat, and swing the horses down into that; but I shouldn’t like to undertake the job.”
“It must be done,” said the King. His words were law, and, in his impatient eagerness to get clear of the vessel where he had passed so many uncomfortable hours, he promised to hold the skipper free from responsibility.
Taking advantage of the King going aft with Saint Simon, Denis went up to the skipper.
“Do you think there will be any danger,” he said, “to the horses?”
“Shouldn’t like to promise, my lad,” was the reply, “but if they were my horses I should go to your master and say, What’s the use of being in such a hurry? It’s only waiting a tide, and then we could get close in.”
“But you don’t know him,” said Denis. “He will have his own way.”
“Yes, I can see that,” said the bluff skipper. “It’d do him good to be six months aboard my vessel under me. I’d make another man of him. Ah, you may laugh, my young sharper. You think I’m a quiet, good-tempered sort of an old chap, but a ship’s captain has to be a bit of a Tartar too. Do you know what he is aboard his ship? Well, I’ll tell you. He’s a king.”
Denis gazed sharply in the man’s face, wondering whether he had any suspicion as to who his passenger really was, as he went on talking.
“You see, my boy, I’m used to this sort of thing. Sometimes it’s cattle, sometimes it’s pigs and sheep. Well, they don’t like going down into a flat-bottomed boat; but,” he added, with a chuckle and a nudge, “they have to go, and if they won’t go decently like passengers, we just shoves them overboard and lets them swim ashore. But with horses like these it would be spoiling them to treat them roughly.”