This sudden exhibition of a lack of a practical knowledge took his breath away for a moment.
“We’re waiting out here because we have got to stay here, Marcena. This is as far as it’s safe to go.”
“We might as well sit on the Cliff House piazza and boss the job as be out here,” grumbled the gambler.
“I don’t know what sort of an idea you had about getting this treasure,” retorted the captain. “But if you had paid attention to Ike when, he was telling about the lay of the land you ought to have realized that we wasn’t going to tie up to that wreck and have Sidney hook bags of gold on to a fish-line for you to pull up.”
“I’m down here to have a general oversight in this business,” said Keedy, “and I propose to be near enough to the job to oversee it.”
Captain Holstrom looked a bit disgusted. “We might rig a bos’n’s chair for you on one of them ribs, and cut a hole in the water for you to look down through. But see here, Marcena, don’t get foolish about this thing. All you’ve been thinking about, so I judge, is of them boxes of gold, and you haven’t stopped to figure on the way of getting ’em. I have figured. I’ve talked a lot with old Ike when you wasn’t listening, but was dreaming about them ingots. Now you listen to me. Let’s start in without a row and a general misunderstanding.” He began to dot off his points with a stubby forefinger.
“We can’t anchor the Zizania any nearer. There isn’t holding-ground on that sand, and we’ve got to have plenty of water under this steamer in case of a blow. See those lighters forward? I bought ’em after I got a general understanding of the lay of the land here from Ike.”
“You bought a lot of things without consulting me,” said Keedy, showing his grouch. “What am I in this thing—a passenger or a partner? Seeing that my money is in it, I propose to have my brains in, too.”
The man acted and talked in a way to indicate that he was starting out hunting for trouble. It began to look to me as if there were worse shoals ahead for our partnership than the shoals of San Apusa Bar. Mr. Jones had given me that as the name of the place where the wreck lay.
Capt. Rask Holstrom did not have the steadiest temper in the world. His eyes narrowed.