"From New York," replied Charley. "Whereabouts is the best channel in Hempstead Bay? Do we want to keep near the beach, or near the other shore?"
"Where be you going?"
"To Amityville or thereabouts. Will we have any trouble in finding the way there?"
"Who be you, anyway?"
"Oh, never mind him," said Harry, in a low tone. "He'll ask questions all day, and never answer any."
But the man was not quite so exasperating as Harry imagined. After looking at the Ghost with some admiration, and expressing the opinion that she was "a tidy boat," he condescended to answer Charley's questions about the channel.
"Channel? Why, bless you, you can't find the channel to save your life. It jest winds in among the islands, and runs every which way. You've got to be brung up on this bay before you can ever learn the channel."
"But we can find it if we keep searching for it, can't we?" inquired Charley.
"You'll be growed up before you do," answered the man. "You can try it, I s'pose, if you want to. You must keep a-gradooally working up to the nor'ard, and if one of you gets up the mast and watches the color of the water, mebbe you can find the way. Say, where was you last night—aboard this consarn?"
"We've been here ever since that thunder-shower came up."