"Oh no; not on account of his ears," replied the chief, "but on account of his obstinacy. When he once gets an idea in his head, nothing in the world will ever knock it out of him."
"Where did you hear all this?" said the second mate.
"Oh, I remember hearing about him at home from a naval man I knew who was messmate with him on the West Coast."
"Well," said the second officer, "there isn't much to be obstinate about at present, except fighting the south-west monsoon."
"Exactly," replied Urquhart; "and from what he said to me to-day that's just the very thing he's got in his head. He's got a new idea, he says, which he is going to try."
"What is it?" said the second officer and I simultaneously.
"Well, he thinks that, instead of steering a direct[!-- [Pg 207] --] course for Aden right in the teeth of the monsoon, it would be better policy to edge away across the Arabian Sea on a nor'-west course, making the monsoon a leading wind, because he declares it his opinion that on the Arabian coast the monsoon will be either much lighter or have drawn more to the southward."
"What did you say to that?"
"Oh, I said I thought it might be so, but that we should have to traverse considerably more distance; to which he replied that the speed at which the ship would travel under the improved conditions of weather would make up for that."
"I'm not at all sure about it," said the second officer.