“That’s bad,” mused the stranger. “She did not belong to me.”
“Then you are so much in. Perhaps, if she had belonged to you, you would not have let the steam-launch run into you,” added Dory, who did not quite like the way the victim was taking things; for he did not seem to remember that he had been pulled out of the water by the skipper of the Goldwing when he was in great danger of drowning.
“I did not let the steam-launch run into me. The man in her did it on purpose. It was not an accident,” answered the stranger.
“I heard the fellow say that he meant to sink you; and, after he said that, I thought you were a little out of your head to let him do it.”
“I didn’t let him do it.”
“I thought you did. If I had been at the tiller of that sloop, he wouldn’t have done it.”
“Probably you are a better boatman than I am: I don’t pretend to know much about the management of a yacht,” replied the victim meekly, as he finished wiping the water from his face.
“Then you ought not to be sailing a boat in a fresh breeze, such as we are having to-day. Why didn’t you put your helm down when you saw that he was going to run into you?”
“Down where?” asked the victim with a vacant stare.
“Down cellar!” exclaimed Dory, disgusted at the ignorance of the skipper of the sunken sloop. “No fellow ought to sail a boat if he don’t know how to put the helm down.”