It was quite
deliberately done, as even a landsman could see; and it lost us a
couple of hundred yards off the captain's boat, sailing to starboard
of us.
"Things were scarcely right with us before Macnaughten had brought
his boat about close to wind and came ranging alongside. He had his
watch in his hand.
"'Mr. Grimalson,' he demanded, 'why were you fooling with that sail,
just now?'
"'She wasn't setting proper,' explained Grimalson; 'and I told Jarvis
to take a swig on the downhaul. He got messed up in the slack
somehow, and--'
"'Before you go any further,'--the captain cut him short--' I may
just tell you that your sail was setting perfectly, and that I saw
the whole business through my glass. . . . Hasn't Doctor Foe told you
that I require him, while this weather holds, to be on board this
boat regularly at ten minutes to noon, to take observations?'
"'Observations?' grumbled the second mate. 'I thought observations
to be a seaman's job. I reckoned that what doctors and suchlike took
was temperatures, and five minutes up or down wouldn't put anyone
out.
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