I wondered what Cap’n Si would do. To ignore a flag of distress—to pass by the opportunity of rescuing a fellow-creature from death—would be an awful thing. Yet there might be nobody in the boat. I could see the old man doubted.
And then the lookout hailed again:
“The Gullwing’s dropping a boat, sir!”
“That’s enough!” roared Cap’n Si, all in a bluster at once. “I won’t let Cap’n Joe do more’n me. Mr. Barney!” The second mate had followed him on deck. “Call away a boat’s crew.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” was the second mate’s smart response.
“Beat the Gullwing’s boat to that barge. Understand me? You git there first. I ain’t goin’ to let Joe Bowditch crow over me in Baltimore. Mebbe the boat’s wuth savin’ after all.”
Before he had ceased speaking Mr. Barney had shouted down the fo’castle hatchway and his watch tumbled up. I had slid down the stays to the deck and was right beside the boat Mr. Barney had elected to launch. I wanted to go in that boat, but I belonged to the mate’s watch and knew I would not be selected.
Chapter XV
In Which We Have a Good Race In Earnest
And I had an idea that if I asked the captain to go in the boat, or suggested it to Mr. Barney, I’d get an immediate refusal. I had a decided belief that Captain Somes didn’t wish me to get aboard the Gullwing again. Not that he needed my services particularly—although my work was costing him nothing but my grub and the cast-off clothes I had been given; but Captain Si feared that Captain Joe needed me, and my remaining with the Seamew was crippling his rival. Which, by the way, was likely to be the facts in the case.