“Jerry,” he whispered fiercely, “you’ve got to stop talking like that!”
“I don’t care!” Jerry said stoutly. “We’ve been pushed around long enough, and now I’ve got to get it off my chest. Listen, Sandy—you know very well what’s going to happen when we get in there with the captain. He’s going to accuse us with a lot of lies that he’s heard from the mate. He’ll not only forget that we risked our lives to get at that table, but he’ll turn around and say we started the fire.”
“Shhh!” Sandy said, looking around anxiously.
Jerry lowered his voice, but he didn’t stop talking. “It’s true! Why, look what he said to you after you rescued poor old Cookie from drowning! He acted as though you’d jumped in just to make him late for the Soo Locks. Honestly, Sandy, I don’t know why you bother—”
“Because we’ve got to!” Sandy insisted, squeezing Jerry’s arm. “Don’t you realize that a captain aboard ship is a lot different from a teacher or a football coach? He’s got you in his power, Jerry. His word is law! Really. You can’t disobey him!”
“Oh, no?” Jerry said.
“If you do,” Sandy warned, “you’ll wind up in jail. I mean it, Jerry. Now is just the time when we’ve got to keep our heads.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. Then he went on: “Captain West must know by now that we’ve found out about him. You remember that Mr. Briggs was out in the passageway, eavesdropping, while we were talking about it. He’s certainly told the skipper. Now, with the fire, he’s got an excuse to do something that will keep us from warning Mr. Kennedy.”
Jerry’s eyes widened. “Such as what?” he asked. “Such as locking us up somewhere.”
There was a momentary silence, and then Jerry James groaned and said, “Boy, oh, boy, we really are in trouble, aren’t we?”
Sandy smiled in relief. He could tell by the tone of his friend’s voice that he had gotten over his resentment. With a reassuring squeeze of Jerry’s arm, Sandy continued, “We are. That’s why we’ve got to stay calm. So, whatever you do, Jerry, don’t say or do anything foolish when we get in there with Captain West.”