"Here we are aground, anyhow."
"Harry," continued Bob, gently and kindly, "I think Ernest was right in what he said. If you hadn't stopped the engine, we should have gone through well enough."
Vallington bit his lips, and he and Bob walked aft together. They were absent a few moments; and when he returned, the general's face wore a different expression.
"Thornton, I acknowledge that I was wrong," said he, extending his hand to me.
The boys standing around us immediately began to clap their hands in token of their satisfaction. In matters of navigation they were more willing to believe in me than in Vallington; and probably most of them were satisfied that I had been in the right.
"Don't say another word," I replied, jumping down from my seat, and grasping his offered hand.
"You will excuse my hasty language," he continued.
"Certainly; and I ask the same favor of you," I replied.
"I irritated you, commodore, by my unreasonable words, and I am willing to bear all the blame."
"You don't deserve it all."