But each time he restrained himself, while her
pride prevented her from making the suggestion.
"Good whale-boat sailors do not necessarily make good schooner-handlers,"
she replied to one of his arguments. "Besides, the captain of a boat
like the _Martha_ must have a large mind, see things in a large way; he
must have capacity and enterprise."
"But with your Tahitians on board--" Sheldon had begun another argument.
"There won't be any Tahitians on board," she had returned promptly. "My
men stay with me. I never know when I may need them. When I sail, they
sail; when I remain ashore, they remain ashore. I'll find plenty for
them to do right here on the plantation. You've seen them clearing bush,
each of them worth half a dozen of your cannibals."
So it was that Joan stood beside Sheldon and sighed as she watched the
_Martha_ beating out to sea, old Kinross, brought over from Savo, in
command.
"Kinross is an old fossil," she said, with a touch of bitterness in her
voice. "Oh, he'll never wreck her through rashness, rest assured of
that; but he's timid to childishness, and timid skippers lose just as
many vessels as rash ones. Some day, Kinross will lose the _Martha_
because there'll be only one chance and he'll be afraid to take it.
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