"Choke her down, you fools! Do you want to run us under?"
"Get out of the way yourself! Why didn't you blow your whistle? You saw that buoy there. You have seen it for the last half hour. You knew you ought to have given warning before you got into the cut here."
"What does that buoy mean?" demanded Captain Simms.
"A coal barge was sunk there this morning."
The two vessels met with a heavy bump that set everything rattling on board both ships, but the shock was not sufficiently severe to do any damage to either.
"Back up, you fellows, unless you want us to push you out!" commanded Captain Simms.
In the meantime, after the shock, Steve had stepped to the telegraph and swung the indicator to the word "Stop!"
The two captains hurled language at each other for the next two minutes, but the other skipper grew tired of it first. He gave the order to reverse propeller. The up-bound boat began to retreat slowly.
"Slow speed ahead," commanded Captain Simms.
The master was leaning from the pilot-house window, megaphone in hand, ready to roar at the other skipper at the first opportunity. But there was no good excuse for him to do so. After backing down stream sufficiently to make passing safe, Captain Simms gave his whistle lever a jerk, sounding one sharp blast, meaning that he would meet and pass the other vessel on its port side.