"Well, maybe you can and maybe you can't. I'm going to haul out, right away. Go, or not go? What do you say?"
"Are you going home from Havana, captain?"
"I can't say. I will, if I get a charter. But, being short handed, I'd like to have a good, active, stout lad, like you, and will give you ordinary seamen's wages. Haven't been much to sea, have you?"
"No, sir; but I'm not a bad schooner sailor, and can reef and steer."
"Well, I don't want any shilly-shally! Say yes or no. I have my clearance, and here comes the tug to take me down the Sound."
"Well, yes, then."
And so it came about that Lee found himself, within half an hour, bound down for Hatteras Inlet and thence for Havana, when he had only started from home to go halibut fishing!
CHAPTER VII.
In a day or two after the vessel got to sea the mates got better and went to duty, and the skipper seemed to take a pleasure in abusing and worrying them, although it was evident from their appearance that they had suffered severely from the swamp fever, and had not been shamming, as the captain intimated.