The Wolff gang were in a bad temper, and the meal had scarcely begun when a discussion broke out.
“It’s a funny thing,” said Shiner, “that we have not hit the thing yet.”
“We have been twice over the ground,” said Wolff.
“Sure you haven’t made a mistake in the spot, Captain?” said Shiner.
The Captain put down the glass of mineral water he was raising to his lips.
“Why can’t you say what you mean?” said he. “Why can’t you ask me right out if I haven’t muddled the navigation and missed the job? Well, I haven’t. Is that plain? Some men may doubt their own work, and there are some men who would be put off by suspicions flung at them and would say, ‘Maybe I am wrong,’ and pick up his buoys and move off to another ground and make fools of themselves. I’m not that sort. Can’t you see that a cable may be passed over by a grapnel half a dozen times without the grapnel catching? It may be glued down with coral.”
“Just so, just so!” said Shiner, anxious to pacify. “We never doubted your capacity, Captain.”
“Never, I’m sure,” said Wolff.
The Captain, somewhat mollified, went on with his meal, and he was raising the glass of mineral water for the second time to his lips when the dead, slow tramp of the engines ceased.