"But, Bill," said the captain, hopelessly, "you didn't _count_ the tows?"
"No, sir," Bill answered, promptly, "I'm bound t' say I didn't. After your two recall guns, sir, we was in a hurry t' get aboard. 'Twas a fault, I knows, sir, but it can't be helped now. I don't _know_ that anybody changed the flags. I hasn't any reason t' _think_ so. So I _believe_ that the fat's ours."
"Well, men," the captain concluded, "that's just my position. I _knows_ nothin' t' the contrary; so I got t' believe that the fat's ours. You'll tell the crew that I'll stand by them. We'll take that fat, whatever they tries t' do, an' we'll let the courts decide afterwards. That's all."
There was fret and uncertainty for the captain after the men trooped out. He was an honest man, seeking the right, but not sure that he was right. It seemed to him that, whatever the outcome, his reputation and that of the firm would be tarnished. In a trial at law, the crew of the _Lucky Star_ and the firm of Alexander Bryan & Company would appear as the aggrieved parties. Men would say--yes, men would even publicly take oath to it--that Captain Hand was a thief, and that the firm of Armstrong & Son abused its power and wealth in sustaining him. Not everybody would believe _that_, of course; but many would--and the odium of the charge would never disappear, let the verdict of the jury be what it might.
"B'y," he said to Archie, in great distress, "'tis a tryin' place t' be in. I wants t' wrong nobody. 'Twould wound me sore t' wrong Cap'n Black, who's always been my friend. But I got t' have that fat. A sealin' skipper that goes back on his crew is not fit for command. I _must_ stand by the men. If I had an enemy, b'y," he added, "an' that enemy wanted t' ruin me, he couldn't choose a better----"
Captain Hand stopped dead and stared at the table--stared, and gaped, until his appearance was altogether out of the common.
"What's the matter, cap'n?" asked Archie, alarmed.
At that moment, however, there was a knock at the door. Billy Topsail came in, pale and wide-eyed; but the sight of Archie seemed to compose him.
"I got t' tell you about Tim Tuttle," he began, hurriedly. "I hears there's goin' t' be a fight, an'--an'--I got t' tell you that I seed him change the flags on the tows."