Mamise had heard a vast amount of discontented talk among the men.
“There’s an awful lot of trouble brewing.”
“Trouble is no luxury to me,” said Davidge. “Blessed is he that expects trouble, for he shall get it. Wait till this war is over and then you’ll see a real war.”
“Shall we all get killed or starved?”
“Probably. But in the mean while we had better sail on and on and on. The storm will find us wherever we are, and there’s more danger close ashore than out at sea. Let’s make a tour of the Mamise and see how soon she’ll be ready to go overboard.”
CHAPTER VIII
Nicky Easton’s attempt to assassinate the ship had failed, but the wounds he dealt her had retarded her so that she missed by many weeks the chance of being launched on the Fourth of July with the other ships that made the Big Splash on that holy day. The first boat took her dive at one minute after midnight and eighty-one ships followed her into the astonished sea.
While the damaged parts of the Mamise were remade, Davidge pushed the work on other portions of the ship’s anatomy, so that when at length she was ready for the dip she was farther advanced than steel ships usually are before they are first let into the sea.