Here the lieutenant commander repeated the first part of Jack's directions correctly, but wound up with:
“He advised me to throw my wheel over four points to port.”
“Pardon me, sir,” Jack broke in, unable to keep still longer. “What I said, or intended to say, was to bring your vessel so that the forward end of the submarine shed over there would be four points off the port bow.”
“What did you hear Mr. Benson say, Mr. Trahern?” demanded the gunboat's commander, turning to the ensign who had stood with him on the bridge.
[pg 043] “Why, sir, I understood the lad to say what he states that he said.”
“You are sure of that, Mr. Trahern?”
“Unless my ears tricked me badly,” replied the ensign, “Mr. Benson said just what he now states. I wondered, sir, at your calling for slow speed astern.”
Lieutenant Commander Mayhew gazed for some moments fixedly at the face of Ensign Trahern. Then, of a sudden, the gunboat's commander, who was both an officer and a gentleman, broke forth, contritely:
“As I think it over, I believe, myself, that Benson advised as he now states he did. It was my own error—I am sure of it now.”
Wheeling about, Mayhew held out his right hand.