Roy Norton

“ I thought I was the only man aboard this boat who had nerves. It's enough, Jimmy, to give any man the jumps! Come on. Let me help you. I've some brandy in my cabin, and maybe a pull at that will set you straight."
I bent over to assist him, but he half pushed me away, gently, as if to assure me that he had no intention of being rude, and straightened himself until he stood erect. He barred his arms across the door to prevent my entering his precincts, and stammered, "Please, sir! Please! Let me—let me come to your cabin for the brandy. ”

“ I had some difficulty in getting such a man as I wanted for chief engineer of the Esperanza, for good men were scarce. A labor exchange agent had just told me he could not furnish me with any man he could wholly recommend, and I was turning out of the office when he said, "By the way, there is one man who is a crack, but a crank, that is on my list. If you can't do better— But I can't say much for him. Bad-tempered old devil. Twisted Jimmy Martin, they call him." ”

“ He looked at me questioningly.
"Jimmy Martin," I said, with a swift and unaccountable faith that he was at least very honest, "you can trust me, and I'm going to trust you; but I do want to say that you put us in pretty big danger. One never can tell who is watching, in times like these. You know that. And I think you know that there are a lot of men looking for the Esperanza, all the time. You got that second cabin to use as a laboratory." ”

“ Each individual, be he ever so humble, must have something of which to be proud if he has been at all a man!
I had not appreciated to the full my father's harassments until that day I presented myself in the offices of the Esperanza Sailing Company, to learn the exact financial status upon which my mother and I must depend. His letter, written some years previous, had foreseen difficulties that were to be brought about by steam, although he, old-fashioned if you will, clung to sail. ”

“ CHAPTER III NO individual is indispensable to a nation, regardless of his greatness or his smallness. The great Lincoln, of whose tragic death no real American may think without a sudden tremor of veneration and pity, left but a momentary gap when his life's work was ended. How little, then, mattered the loss of the services of Thomas Hale, a mere lieutenant-commander aboard one of America's many ships? ”

“ Moreover, he was a self-made scientist, and had been discharged from two submarine concerns for conducting experiments on his own responsibility without any permission whatever from his employers. His sole passion was for inventing different appliances, nearly all of which proved worthless, or were stolen from him. He had been derided and ridiculed until he had gained a thorough contempt for the intelligence of other men, robbed until he doubted most men's honesty, and feared to talk lest some one should pirate his ideas ”

“ Moreover, he was aboard before the ship was ready to go into commission, and himself went over the engines until they were as perfect as human skill could make them.
I said that I took chances. My first cargo was one of high explosives for a certain one of the Allies, and we cleared port without a penny of insurance, but under a freight rate that was so high I blush to tell the figures. Nor did we stop at that ”