“That means?” I suggested, swapping looks with the captain.
“I suppose it means that he is going to blow this thing to the underwriters.”
“Then we are stealing this gold, are we?”
Captain Holstrom fingered his red knob of a nose, and looked away from me.
“I don’t know much about law,” I went on. “I supposed you knew something about our rights in this thing—if we have any. I tell you, it’s going to be pretty tough, Captain, if I’ve been through all this hell only to have all our great hopes grabbed away from us.”
“Men have to take a chance in this world, Sidney. Damn the law in a case like this! The gold was there, and nobody was trying to get it. We had a right to try for it.”
“But wasn’t there any legal way?”
“Oh, a drunken lawyer in San Francisco told me something about power by attorney, but it meant chasing around and getting hold of claims by shippers, or something of the kind—and that meant blowing our plans and letting a lot of grafters in on us. I simply cleared from the custom-house as a trawler and came away, minding my own business.”
“And now somebody else will take the job of minding it,” I complained. I did not have much philosophy or courage about me just then. My hands and feet and shoulders were aching too miserably; and had all my suffering and daring been thrown away?
“Let’s go home, father,” pleaded the girl.