I led the way, and we seated ourselves in the pilot-house. I had indicated this place because I wanted to hear the explanation of the captain of the Islander.
"Captain Blastblow, your conduct has astonished me," said Colonel Shepard, more calmly than he had spoken at first.
"I am sorry for it, sir, for I have tried to do just as I was instructed," answered the captain, meekly, and apparently as much astonished as his owner. "I know my place, and I always expect to do just what my employer expects of me."
"I did not expect you to run away with my steam-yacht, when all my family were waiting to go in her," added the colonel, becoming more indignant as he rehearsed the incidents of the morning we left Jacksonville.
"But your going in the Islander depended on your business; and when I saw you the morning before we sailed, you could not tell what you would do. You instructed me to water and provision the vessel, and wait for further orders. Towards evening, you sent off a card by young Boomsby, directing me to have steam up and be ready to sail early in the morning. I was ready to go by six o'clock," answered the captain, taking from his desk in the pilot-house a package of papers, from which he selected the card sent off by Nick. "Is it all straight so far?"
"Entirely: it was just as you say. I received a letter by the afternoon mail, which assured me a business matter would allow me to be absent from New York a month or six weeks longer; and I decided to go up the river with the Sylvania."
"I didn't ask questions, or inquire into your business. All I had to do was to obey the orders of my owner," added Captain Blastblow. "I made sure that everything on board was ready for the voyage before I turned in that night. By half-past five in the morning we had steam enough on to sail down the river. It was about half-past six when your friend, Mr. Boomsby, came——"
"My friend, Mr. Boomsby!" exclaimed the colonel. "I never even saw my friend, Mr. Boomsby, that I know of."
"I only know that you called him your friend yourself," replied Captain Blastblow.
"I called him so! How could I call him so when I had no acquaintance with him?" demanded the owner, with a smile of incredulity.