She took the big book down and read one part of it eagerly.
'I don't see why not,' she decided; and she went to her husband with the request that he should run through Magellan's Straits when he came to it.
'Not for dollars,' said Will Ryder. 'When I'm skipper of a Pacific Navigation boat I'll take you through, but not till then.'
'But look at all you cut off,' urged his wife, 'if you get through.'
'And how you are cut off if you don't,' retorted Ryder. 'When I was an apprentice I went through in fine weather for the Straits, and I'd rather drive a 'bus down Fleet Street in a fog than try it.'
She said he had very little enterprise, and pouted.
'Suppose the Battle-Axe does it?'
Ryder declined to suppose it.
'John wouldn't try it if you guarantee the weather. I know him.'
'You never take my advice,' said his wife.