“No, that ain't it, an' you know it ain't.”
“Oh, I'm in the secret, am I?”
McGlory leaned across the wheel and looked at him. “Are you a-tryin' to make me think you don't know why I come here?”
“I certainly am.”
“Well, you beat me.”
“Then we're in the same condition. It isn't exactly usual, you know, to take another man's schooner off for a summer cruise without asking him if he don't mind. Of course, between friends, it's all right—-only there are some little formalities that are customary. But I suppose you aren't going to tell me anything about it—why you did it.”
The mate said nothing. They were now slipping out into deep water, where the breeze could fill the sails, and the schooner began to heel and to nose through the ripples with a grateful sound. The light was stronger out here, and the mate could see the Captain's face more plainly. What he saw there answered several questions that lay, unspoken, in his mind.
“I 'll take the wheel now,” said Dick. “Hold on, don't you go forward. Wait here till I get through with you.” He raised his voice and called to the others. “Come back here, boys, all o' you.” And when the crew was grouped about the wheel: “Pink, here, is going to be my mate for the rest o' this trip. I want you to take his orders the same as if they were mine. McGlory has nothing more to say on this schooner. That's all.”
The men looked at each other. The Swedes were slow to grasp what was said. McGlory stood back in the shadow, and his face told nothing. Harper was excited.
“That's all, I tell you. You can go back.”