In a few minutes a man brought in a big cup of very good coffee, and set some glasses and a box of biscuits upon the table, but while Appleby fell to when the Commander nodded to him, Stickine did not touch his glass.
"Now I'm going to talk," he said. "In the first place, I've shown you where you are. Next, the schooner's waiting outside the reefs, and unless the boat's back inside an hour with a note from me to the skipper he'll get sail on her, and you can take us and your ship to Alaska, if you can get her out of here. To put it quite plain, we've got the best end of the stick, and we know enough to keep a holt on it."
Somewhat, to Appleby's surprise, the Commander laughed. "I almost believe you have," he said.
Stickine nodded, and once more Appleby wondered. A few months earlier it would have appeared incomprehensible to him that a rough schooner sailor should so quietly enforce his right to be treated as an equal by a naval officer, and prove a match for him. The Commander now appeared quite willing to recognize it.
"Well," said Stickine, "we'll take you out to-morrow for——" and he asked a sum that astonished Appleby.
"No, sir," said the Commander. "I'll have the boats over at sun up and find my own way out."
"I guess not," said the sealer. "You've been looking round and coming right upon a fresh reef at every turn already, while there's a sunk ledge in one of the openings, and before you're through you'd have the gale in on you."
The two officers conferred together half-aloud, and finally the Commander said, "I couldn't pay more than half what you're asking."
"Well," said Stickine dryly, "it strikes me it would be a long way cheaper than losing your ship. The dollars would come in quite handy to us but they wouldn't count for very much with the U.S. Treasury."
The Commander drummed on the table with his fingers. "The trouble is I don't know I could send a bill of that kind to the Treasury," he said. "I'm not a rich man, and the dollars would take a good deal of raising if I had to find them myself."