You'd better bring a
serving-mallet aft with you, when you come."
I hesitated a moment, partly in anger; but more, I think, in doubt.
"i, i, Sir," I muttered at length, and went forrard.
VIII
_After the Coming of the Mist_
After the coming of the mist, things seemed to develop pretty quickly.
In the following two or three days a good deal happened.
On the night of the day on which the Skipper had sent me away from the
wheel, it was our watch on deck from eight o' clock to twelve, and my
look-out from ten to twelve.
As I paced slowly to and fro across the fo'cas'le head, I was thinking
about the affair of the morning. At first, my thoughts were about the
Old Man. I cursed him thoroughly to myself, for being a pig-headed old
fool, until it occurred to me that if I had been in his place, and come
on deck to find the ship almost aback, and the fellow at the wheel
staring out across the sea, instead of attending to his business, I
should most certainly have kicked up a thundering row. And then, I had
been an ass to tell him about the ship.
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