"The old rascal! He's trying to show off. He's put his deaf ear to the tube, I'll be bound. Best go inside, Miss Hallowell, this wind is full of sleet. McCloskey! Head her inshore, I say."
On rushed the Lucy. Her course did not change a hair's breadth.
"No wonder they call him Commodore McCloskey!" Rod whispered wickedly. "Even the captain has to yield to him."
"McCloskey!" The captain's voice was gruff with anger. "Head her inshore! Unless you're trying to kill the boat——"
Crash!
The captain's sentence was never finished.
CHAPTER III
ENTER MR. FINNEGAN
With that crash the floor shot from under their feet. Stumbling and clutching, the three, Marian, Rod, and the captain, pitched across the deck and landed in a heap against the rail. The lighted cabin seemed to rear straight up from the deck and lunge toward them. There was an uproar of shouts, a hideous pounding of machinery. Marian shut her eyes.
Then, with a second deafening crash, the steamer righted herself; and, thrown like three helpless ninepins, Marian, Rod, and the captain reeled back from the rail and found themselves, bumped and dizzy, tangled in a heap of freight and canvas. Rod was the first on his feet. He snatched Marian up, with a groan.