He chose to sight you--and he hadn't heard the dog. If he had, it
wasn't in him to guess that you had left any better than a dog
behind.
"--Then you fairly flummoxed him. Missionary though you were, he'd
accepted you as prospective shareholder. It wasn't for him to guess
that you dared not go back.
"--He's told me that, accepting you, for a day and a half he held on
his course, close-hauled. Is that so? But he was suspicious, as
deaf men are. He took a notion that you--you, keeping mum as a cat,
having to pass for somebody else and avoid questions--were just lying
low, meaning to slip cable at Valparaiso and hurry in with a prior
claim. I am sorry to say it, Foe: but altogether you did not create
good impression on board the _I'll Away_. To the crew you were an
object of dark suspicion. To the skipper you were either a close
knave, meaning to trick him, or an incredible idiot. After a while,
and almost against hope, he determined to try you for an idiot.
He ordered his helm up, and watched you. You did not protest.
He put his helm farther and farther up, and headed for the
Marquesas.
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