"It's a kind of thick night," said the latter with a little nod. "Now, as I'm going to talk to you neighbourly, I've no use for the boys outside there. Because it wouldn't have been quite square to you as Commander I didn't object to them before."
There was something very like a grin in the face of the officer who still stood in the doorway, and the Commander's cheeks flushed a trifle. Stickine, however, met his gaze with complete unconcern, and finally he raised his hand and a patter of feet on deck showed that the guard was retiring.
"You don't seem to understand that unless you give me a very good reason for not doing it I'm going to take you prisoners to Alaska," he said.
Stickine laughed a little. "Well," he said dryly, "I don't figure you will. In the first place, you can't take us anywhere until you get out of here, and unless you and me agree it's when you try to the trouble will begin. She's not holding with you now, and we'll have it thicker still until the wind piles the sea in to-morrow. When you've got a holt on that we'll go on."
The other officer leaned over the Commander's shoulder, and said something Appleby did not hear. Then the Commander sat silent a while as he watched Stickine. "Well?" he said at last.
Stickine's eyes twinkled a little. "First time you've been up here after the sealers? You don't know us yet. Now, I was wondering when you were going to offer us something to eat and drink."
The Commander stared at him, while the other man, who appeared divided between anger and laughter, turned away his head. Then, as if it were in spite of him, a little smile crept into the former's face.
"Sit down. You deserve anything we can give you for your assurance," he said. "Well, have you any especial fancy?"
Stickine appeared to reflect, "Champagne would be good enough for me," he said. "The last time I had any a Russian officer I did something for gave it me. The lad will have coffee. That is, if the cook has any fire in his galley."
The Commander touched a bell, and the other officer flung himself, laughing, into the chair. "I guess you'll get on with him better that way, sir," he said. "I've had a good deal to do with these fellows, and generally found them difficult to bluff."