“There, there, lads,” interposed the boatswain, “I don’t believe you will have any liberty.”
“Why not?”
“Because you want to humbug the principal; and me, too—but that’s no account. If you want to make the best of it, toe the mark. Don’t have any lies in your heart or on your tongue. Tell the whole truth, and you will make more by it; but tell the truth whether you make anything or not.”
“You won’t believe anything we say,” protested Sanford.
“Of course I won’t, when you are lying. I call things by their right names.”
“We didn’t stave the boat at Christiansand.”
“Yes, you did,” replied Peaks, plumply.
“If you think so, it’s no use talking.”
“Certainly not; don’t talk, then.”
Sanford was not prepared for so grave a charge as that of causing the accident to the second cutter; and if the principal was of the same mind as the boatswain, the case would go hard with the runaways. The coxswain and Stockwell went into the bow of the little steamer to discuss their situation, which they did very earnestly for a couple of hours.