The skipper laughed.
"A captain's first duty, sir, is to know how to lie to consuls and Customs officers. The Board o' Trade ought to examine him in this art before granting him his certificate. A skipper who can't lie—and especially here in the Mediterranean—ain't worth the smell of an oil-rag. He's more bother to his owners than he's worth."
"Well, just exercise your untruthful proclivities upon my guests on this occasion, Davis, and I shall not forget to find something handsome for you at the end of this cruise. Up to the present I have had no cause whatever to complain."
"Glad to hear that, sir. Very glad, indeed," responded the old navigator. "To handle a boat like the Vispera is different to handling a coal barge from Cardiff, for instance. Aboard of the latter you can get work out of your men by swearin' at them, and even out o' the boilers by just calling them a few names what ain't polite. But on board of this here yacht I'm always afraid of openin' my mouth, and that's the truth. With ladies about you have to be so awful careful. I know," he added, "that I could have made much better time if I might only have given my tongue a bit o' liberty."
"Give it liberty in your own cabin, Davis," laughed the millionaire. "The ladies are not used to nautical epithets."
"No, sir. Not this cruise," was the other's response. "I'm storing of 'em up to be used on the trip home, when we're without passengers. The atmosphere'll turn blue round and over this yacht then, I can promise you."
His master laughed again, and said:
"Very well. As long as you perfectly understand my instructions, that is sufficient. Put into Palermo, and if you receive no telegram there, go on at once to Ragusa. Remember to make it plain to the guests that I'm very busy, and that I shall rejoin you in Sicily."
"Never fear, sir."
"And recollect the box," was Keppel's injunction.