The young mate smiled.
'His notion in limiting us to time,' said he, 'was that we should not run the quest into a hopeless job. There should be a limit.'
'Of course, a reasonable limit,' said Parry. 'What is it?'
'It has been left to my judgment, sir; and I am willing to be governed by you.'
'Thanks, Blundell!'
Captain Parry, pronouncing this sentence with warmth and emotion, stepped to the binnacle and looked at the card.
'You are holding the schooner north-west,' said he. 'You have a reason?'
'We must head her on one course or another,' answered Blundell. 'I propose, with your leave, to carry out Captain Barrington's ideas. He has sketched me a circular course. I'll compass it off on the chart below presently, and you shall form your own opinion. Loose the square canvas, my lads!' he sang out, abruptly breaking from Captain Parry.
The captain lent a hand to pull and haul; he dragged to the music of the salt-throats at the sheets and halliards. The breeze freshened in a steady gushing. The ocean was a miracle of laughing light. Already you heard the snore of foam at the cutwater, and the stealthy hiss of its passage aft.
The Alfred was growing small and square in the blue distance. She was feeling the breeze now, and her pale and shapely shadow leaned as she headed, with an occasional dim flash from her wet, black side, into the far northern recess.