"I'm sure it is not," protested Grace. "I wonder if I have any influence with the officers."
"I think you have: indeed, I know you have with one of them," replied Paul; but he began to choke before he had uttered the last clause of the sentence.
"With one of them?"
"Yes, with all of them; but perhaps more with one than with others," stammered Paul, studying the seams in the quarter-decks.
"Who is he, pray?" asked Grace, rather timidly.
"With the commodore," answered he, desperately.
"Thank you, Commodore Kendall. Then we will both use our influence to have the captain set right with the officers and the crew."
"Well, it is not exactly the right thing for so dignified a personage as the commodore to persuade his inferiors that his views are correct. He issues orders, and others obey them," laughed Paul. "But really I cannot, in courtesy, meddle with the discipline of the ship."
"I'm going to meddle with it, if I can do anything to set Captain Shuffles right," said Grace, who was very confident that it was quite impossible for her noble preserver to do, or even think, anything wrong.
"The officers will do their duty, whatever they think," added Paul. "In due time they will be satisfied that the captain is right. I fully agree with him, and think that the ship ought to go to sea."