'I believe you will,' said Ryder.
It was a happy ship.
THE COMEDY OF THE ORIANA
If the Oriana of Liverpool was a comfortable ship, and every one who was in her said so, Captain Joseph Ticehurst was no fool. He worked his 'crowd' reasonably, but saw that they did work; and if any of them shirked or malingered, the result was unpleasant for the one who tried such a game on with the quiet and gentlemanly skipper. And his mates took their time from him.
'To put it on no higher level,' said Captain Ticehurst, 'it pays to make a ship comfortable when she visits the Pacific coast of North America. For as things are now, if we lose the crew in Portland, we shall have to pay the boarding-house masters at least a hundred and fifty dollars a man. And as like as not every man we took will be worth two and a half dollars at the most. I know the Pacific, and you don't.'
For both his mate and second mate were with him for the first time.
'Is that the "blood-money" one hears of, sir?' asked Mr. Gregg, the second 'greaser.'
'That's it,' said Ticehurst, 'and last voyage I had to pay a hundred dollars each for six men to Healy the boarding-house master. And I own I lost my temper. I swore I'd never do it again. And Healy grinned in my face, and said that he'd see I paid more next time. The scoundrel seems to have the whole city in his hands, and half the newspapers. Oh, I tell you the Pacific coast is an eye-opener to a man who has never been on it, I tell you that.'
The Oriana was then running north, with a fine south-westerly breeze. The coast of Oregon showed up clearly. With good glasses it was possible to see Mount Shasta on the starboard quarter. Its snows gleamed in the westering sun; and to the north was the range of the Siskyous.