“Not a thing, sir,” replied Bates.
“There! I hear the horn!” exclaimed Dave Windsor.
“Horn on the starboard bow, sir!” shouted Bates.
“I hear it,” added Dory. The gong-bell in the engine-room rang, and the Sylph began to move again.
“Horn again, sir. We are not ten fathoms from the point, sir,” called Bates. “I see the light now, sir.”
“All right: so do I. Keep a sharp lookout ahead, Bates,” replied Dory, as the sound of a jingling bell was heard from the engine-room; and the steamer increased her speed very rapidly.
“Bates seems to be a very polite man,” said Ned Bellows, laughing. “He puts in a ‘sir’ every time he says any thing to Dory.”
“It is second nature for a seaman to say ‘sir’ to an officer,” added the captain.
“But to a boy not more than fourteen or fifteen years old!”
“No matter how young or how old he is, if he is an officer. Discipline is very strict at sea, as it will be on board of the Sylph after we have organized the ship’s company. You must all say ‘sir’ to your officers, even if they are boys.”