Roy Norton

“ No man can entirely avoid worry when there is real and active menace surrounding him.
We had been lying in the Atlantic Basin in Brooklyn, and on sailing day threw off the lines and backed out into the stream with as little fuss as is usual with mere tramps of the sea, on whose departure there is no waving of handkerchiefs and no tears from those behind. There were no others to say good-bye than three or four sailors' wives, or three or four sailors' sweethearts, on the dock. ”

“ You've been as white a man as ever I met."
"No, Jimmy," I declared, "that wouldn't be playing fair with a friend. I must do that, otherwise I'd be no friend. I'm just as sincere in wishing you to succeed as I am for my own success. I can get no one like you. You know that! I'd rather have you than any other man living, because I can and do trust you—all the way through. ”

“ I knew myself well enough to feel assured that another woman could never enter my life, at least under the shield of love, and that I could look forward to nothing save the selfish desires of accomplishment. ”

“ We'll have the partitions ripped out to serve your needs, and you can have tests of whatever it is you wish to test, whenever it suits you and all things are convenient. The cabins are nothing. There have been four empty ones ever since I bought her. I'll have a couple of carpenters aboard before noon to' morrow, and all you have to do is to tell them what you want done. It's a little unusual; but that is the advantage of owning one's own ship. I own the Esperanza, and think I can still do what I like with her. ”

“ I stammered something about not wishing to stand in the way of his progress and reiterated, stubbornly, that I would do anything I could to help him on his quest; that it was not just nor decent for one man to stand in another's way on a road that was hard enough at best. ”

“ He seemed to have a pretty broad knowledge of everything, including music, art, and philosophy. I commented on this, saying that he was more like another man than the chief engineer of the Esperanza, at which he laughed quietly, and said, "Perhaps! Perhaps! But all this is by way of recreation and—relief. You see, you've never quite understood the situation. In one way I have—rather used you. Sometimes I should have felt somewhat sneaking, were it not that I have been a good engineer, and, I hope, given you full value in service."
"You have, Jimmy! You have!" ”

“ CHAPTER IV THE Esperanza made but two more round trips across the Atlantic after that night when the mysterious light shone from Jimmy's cabin, and then, with frayed nerves, but with a larger bank account than I had believed it possible for me to acquire in so short a space of time, I declined another cargo of explosives, and took on a miscellaneous load for Maracaibo. ”

“ I motioned him to a chair, and shoved a box of cigars toward him, before answering.
"Jimmy," I said, "it means that I got to thinking it all over after I left you, and came to the conclusion that I'd like to help you to win out. And I think it's pretty rough luck to have to work all day in an engine-room, and then work half the night afterward. I signed that man on as first engineer. He's got a chief's certificate and a clean record. And on this trip, at least, I'm going to see that you have more time for your own affair. With this additional man, you won't have to stand a trick. ”

“ I've not averaged more than five or six hours' sleep out of each twenty-four, and when standing my trick at the engines have done that work mechanically, while my mind was active on my other problems. And I've watched you quietly, and have come to like and trust you as I do no other man living. ”

“ Jim Martin, despite the liberal bonus he had received while in my employ, must be, by his own confession, a poor man, probably spending all he could rake and scrape on whatever thing this was upon which he was working, a veritable "child of his brain." ”

“ Early the next morning, before Jimmy had appeared, I increased the engine-room staff by another man named Klein, who came rather well recommended, and long before Jimmy arrived, three carpenters had ripped and torn away the partitions of the cabins he wished, with the sole exception of the one guarding his laboratory. ”