"Of course, he didn't do it. The friend persuaded him not to, and when he went into the coaster he forgot to talk about it even when under the effects of his drinks.
"You see, it was about that time the insurance troubles came about. Marine insurance had a tumble owing to the loss of several heavy ships and other matters not worth discussing now. You were badly hit yourself, I believe,"—and the old Captain nodded to the Manager, who smiled acquiescence—"you told me at the time—if I remember rightly—that one more vessel gone and you would go to the wall.
"The friend owned shares in that schooner, owned more than half of her, and he it was that let her go out, made her go to sea after her policies ran out. He would not stop her carrying, for it meant laying her up and Jones would have to go ashore again until things straightened out. It was the hurricane season and she had to go light to Cuba.
"I remember something of the affair, for I happened to be on the dock when she sailed. Jones was standing aft giving orders, and his wife, with her three daughters, were below in the cabin. It was a pretty picture of commercial life, a picture of a man doing his work with his family or part of it around him, and I almost envied him his place. What does an old liner skipper ever have of domestic life? Never gets home, never sees his wife but once or twice a year, and the company never lets her go aboard the ship at all if they can help it. Well, she sailed out that August day, and the next thing we heard of him was that his schooner was driven ashore during a gale. She rammed up on one of the Bahamas, Castle Rock, I believe, and then broke up. Some of the crew and his daughters were saved—he and his wife went down—lost before they could get them ashore.
"And so there it is—did the men do all that was right or did they do all that was wrong? That's the question. Where is the line of demarkation, where does the wrong leave off and right begin, or how is the mixture to be sifted down? We go by rules, we must play according to rules or the game becomes chaos. But do the rules always hold, do they always cover every emergency? I don't know, but I believe there is bad, or what is called bad, in all men, also there is good—it depends upon the man—not the rule."
There was a long pause. The Manager gazed curiously at his guest.
"You say the schooner went ashore on Castle Rock?"
"I said—well, it was somewhere about there, I don't know exactly," replied the old seaman, annoyed.
"There never was a wreck on Castle Rock that I ever heard of," said the Manager, eying the old Captain curiously, "but there was the Hattie Davis that was lost on the Great Inagua Bank—she wasn't insured, I believe."
"Yes, she was lost on the Great Inagua," assented the Captain, leaning back, as though the story were closed.