“Give way,” said the skipper, and the one-eyed seaman began to paddle slowly and deliberately, for the boat was heavily weighted with the skipper and the Count and Baron in the stern, and as there was no necessity for haste, greater speed would have been superfluous.
“Is this the way boats always move over the water?” asked the Count, as he observed the curious manner in which the bow cocked up.
“Not unless they have great men in the stern, as my boat has at present,” answered the skipper.
“Ah, yes, I understand,” said the Count, looking very wise.
The boat was soon alongside the galiot, on board which the skipper stepped. As soon as he was out of her the bow of the boat came down with a flop in the water. He then stood ready to receive the Count and Baron. As he helped them up on deck, he congratulated them on having thus successfully performed the first part of their voyage. “And now, Mynheers,” he continued, “I must beg you to admire the masts and rigging, the yellow tint of the sails, the bright polish you can see around you.”
“You must have expended a large amount of paint and varnish in thus adorning your vessel,” observed the Count.
“I have done my best to make her worthy of her Captain,” answered the skipper, in a complacent tone, “and worthy, I may add, of conveying such distinguished passengers as yourselves.”
The Count bowed, and the Baron bowed, as they prepared to follow the skipper down through a small square hole in the deck with a hatch over it.
“Why, this is not as grand as I had expected,” observed the Count. “Not quite a palace, as you described it, Captain.”
“But it is as comfortable as a palace, and I find it far more so in a heavy sea,” observed the skipper. “For you must understand that if the vessel gives a sudden lurch, it is a great blessing not to be sent fifty feet away to leeward, which you would be if you were in the room of a palace. See what comfort we have got here—everything within reach. A man has only to rise from his chair and tumble into bed, or tumble out of bed, and sit down in his chair to breakfast. Then, when he dresses he has only to stretch out his hand to take hold of the things hanging up against the bulkhead.”