"Why not?"
"Her captain got arrested for something. I saw four officers taking him to the jail. Some one told me he was drunk, and had pitched into a gentleman who was walking along the sidewalk in front of a saloon on Bay Street."
"They will discharge him in time to sail on the tide, won't they?"
"I don't reckon they will. The men from the vessels in the harbor at this time make heaps of trouble," replied David. "If the gentleman he hit had a mind to complain of him, the court would lock him up for a week or two."
Christy was not disposed, under the circumstances, to make a complaint. The boat was soon in sight of the lighthouse and the bar. The Dinah made a long stretch to the eastward, and was in sight of the entrance to the harbor till it began to be dark; but no steamer came out on the high tide. The boat crossed the bar again.
"Now, David, I want you to land me some distance beyond the public wharf," said Christy. "How much shall I pay you for this sail?"
"About three dollars, sir, if you don't think that is too much," answered the boatman.
"That is very reasonable for the time you have been out; and there is a sovereign," added the passenger, as he handed him the gold coin.
"I don't think I can change this piece, sir."
"You need not change it; keep the whole of it."