“From Liverpool, I suppose,” replied Jim, who had joined them, “and quite likely she is going back again.”
“Wonder how she got way out here?” continued Tom.
“You are full of wonder to-day,” laughed Jim. “Steamships go anywhere and everywhere. Here comes the captain. We can ask him.”
“What is it you want to know?” inquired the captain, who had overheard Jim’s remark.
“We were just talking about that steamship there, the Marjorie, and speculating as to what she is and what she’s doing here.”
“It’s pretty hard to tell that,” replied the captain, after taking a look through the glasses. “She’s English built and rigged, that’s certain, but I don’t know what she’s doing so far from her home port.”
“She has good lines and looks as though she might have speed,” criticized Jim.
“Ay, ay, lad, ye’re right there,” agreed the captain. “She looks like a cross between a yacht and a trader. I suspect that is what she is, a trader.”
“She seems to have a big crew for a trader,” said Jim, who had been studying the vessel while talking. “And she looks as though she might carry a pretty heavy armament, too.”