The yacht Viking was weathering the seas grandly. She was a boat that did not bury deep in a smother, and flounder about and pound hard and lose headway, but rode the waves lightly and went easily to windward.
“Works well, doesn’t she?” cried Harvey, enthusiastically.
“Splendid, better than ever—better than she did coming down the river, and yesterday,” responded Mr. Carleton. “She’d almost stand a gaff-topsail even with this breeze. That’s a good clean stick, that topmast. However, I guess we’re doing well enough. We won’t set it, eh?”
“Here, you take the wheel,” he said the next moment to Henry Burns, whom he had observed eying him sharply. “Let’s see what kind of a sailor you are.”
One might have thought it was Mr. Carleton’s own boat. He said it with such an air.
Henry Burns acquiesced calmly and with that confidence he had when he knew he could do a thing right. Here was another individual who could learn things quickly, too; and if Harvey had had more experience than he in actual sailing and handling a boat, Henry Burns more than matched him in coolness and resource.
“You’ll do,” said Mr. Carleton at length. “I’ll risk my life with you and Harvey any day. How’s the crew—are they pretty good sailors, too?”
“First class,” said Henry Burns. “We’ll show you there isn’t a lubber aboard.” And he turned the wheel over first to Tom and then to Bob, who acquitted themselves very creditably, showing they had picked up the knowledge of sailing wonderfully well.
“Good!” exclaimed Mr. Carleton. “That’s the way to run a boat. Give every man a chance to get the hang of it. One never knows what’s going to happen to a sailboat and who’s going overboard, or get tangled up in a sheet, or something the matter; and then it pays to have a crew any one of whom can take hold at a moment’s notice and lend a hand.”
So, having established himself in their confidence, and with mutual good feeling aboard, Mr. Carleton declared himself well pleased with their trip, as they beat up to Southport harbour. He hadn’t enjoyed himself so much in years, he said. And he thanked them cordially for his good time, as they rowed him ashore.