“We were not more than ten minutes at the Ruoara landing, then,” added the mate.
“No; you have done admirably, Mr. Van Wolter, and I thank you for your zeal.”
“Oh, that’s all right! I always mean to do my duty while I have any sort of fair play,” answered the gratified man.
“We must do our duty whether we have fair play or not,” I added. “That’s my motto.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right. The safest, and indeed the only way for us, is always to do our duty.”
“I rather think you are right, after all. We are waxing the Lightning Express over there, this afternoon. That short cut through the Horse-Shoe Channel did the business for us.”
“That’s so; and I’ve been thinking of it for a long time. I suppose if I had mentioned it before I did it, I should have been laughed at.”
“That’s a fact. You have done a big thing to-day, young man; I beg your pardon—Captain Penniman.”
“Oh, we don’t stand on any ceremony! We shall be good friends; and while we stick together, we can accomplish any reasonable thing.”