Sandy saw his chance and interrupted swiftly. “Excuse me, sir, if you mean did he mention you, the fact is that he did.”
“Ah?”
“He said,” Sandy told Captain West in all truthfulness, “he said that you were one of the Kennedy Line’s finest skippers.”
“Well, well,” Captain West said, plainly pleased. “That was very kind of your father. Did he, ah, by the way, say anything about his work?”
“In what way, sir?” Sandy asked innocently. For a moment, Captain West hemmed and hawed, but then, probably because he was satisfied that Sandy knew nothing of the important information which he was disloyally keeping from his employer, he dropped the question. He sent Sandy back to Cookie and Jerry with the promise that if the two youths worked well enough in the galley, he would bring them topside for the return trip.
Jerry eyed Sandy questioningly upon his return, but Sandy merely shrugged and squatted alongside Cookie to listen to the old man talk.
“You see, boys,” Cookie said, waving his pipe in the air, “we’re within sight of land again. That shoreline way ahead, to either side, means that we’re getting close to the Soo.”
“The Soo?”
“Yup, the Sault Sainte Marie. They call it the Soo, though, probably because nobody but the Frenchies can pronounce it right. That’s where Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron through the St. Mary’s River. That’s where the Soo Locks are, boys. If you’re headed downlake, they float you down to a lower level. If you’re headed uplake, they raise you up.”
“Like the Panama Canal?” Sandy asked.