“By crackey! will Mr. Jim beat Mr. Alfred, then, and be boss of the firm?” Thankful Polk demanded.
“That’ll be the end of the story, son,” said Job, turning his cud in his cheek. “Old Jothan sent ’em out, one ter beat the other. By jinks! one has beat the other. No matter how he’s done it. It’s done, and so old Jothan will agree, I reckon.”
“But won’t the firm punish Mr. Jim?” I asked.
“I wanter see the firm do anything that old Jothan don’t want it to do,” scoffed Job.
“And that’s so, too,” agreed old Tom.
“Then, believing that Mr. Jim Barney deliberately wrecked the Seamew so as to beat his brother into Baltimore, you fellows think his uncle will receive him with open arms?”
“That’ll be about it,” said Job. “Jothan Barney is that way. He wanted one of his nephews to show what they call ‘initiative’ and all that. Jim Barney’s showed it——”
“And risked drowning a whole ship’s crew—two ships’ crews, in fact!—including his brother?” I cried. “You believe he did that just to get ahead and win his uncle’s approval?”
“That’s it,” said Job.
“Then if he hated his brother so,” I demanded, raising my voice in my earnestness, “why did he risk his own life to save him?”