As there was still some time to spare, and Eph could handle the "Hastings" as well as any other helmsman on earth, Jack stepped back to the conning tower.
Lieutenant Danvers was there, though with his gaze astern.
"I can just picture old Rhinds," laughed Captain Jack, a bit harshly. "He's saying hard things about us, for cutting in on his course and getting the derelict away from him."
Danvers laughed.
"The old fellow is swearing a blue streak, and threatening himself with an apoplectic stroke every instant."
"You don't seem to love Mr. Rhinds very noticeably," grimaced the naval officer.
"If I don't," voiced Jack, "neither do any of our crowd. And the reason is more than mere business rivalry, too."
Lieutenant Danvers knew nothing whatever of the dastardly attempts against the Pollard crowd that Rhinds and Radwin had engineered.
It was not a time, however, in which to waste precious moments looking back at the more tardy rival boat.
Jack wheeled, bracing himself against the conning tower. They were now within eight hundred yards of the derelict's broadside-on.