“Why not? I’m in earnest. I want you to go along and I’d feel a heap more safe if we had the sloop to depend on. Not that I don’t love that dear little launch down there, but just look what it did to me today! Now come on, like a good chap! What’s your figure?”
“Why—why, if you really mean it,” said Jack, “I guess you can have the Crystal Spring and her skipper for—well, about fifteen a week. That’s pretty near as much as I’ve been making lately.”
“Pretty near as much won’t do,” replied Bee emphatically. “I shall pay you twenty.”
“No, fifteen’s enough.”
“Twenty!”
“Compromise on seventeen-fifty,” advised Hal.
“All right! It’s a bargain, Jack. You’ll get your sailing orders in a day or two; say about Wednesday. We’ll go up or down or over or whatever it is in the sloop and haul the launch with us. We can use the launch for pleasure and the sloop for business.”
“I don’t see any need of having a whole blooming navy on hand,” objected Hal. “If we have the sloop we won’t need the launch, and if we have the launch—”
“Don’t mumble, Hal; talk right out if you have anything to say,” advised Bee. “Now, what time might it be? Great Scott, Hal, we’ll have to scoot!”
“Well, but—”