Captain Candage leaned close enough to note the yacht skipper's uniform coat. “Who do you think you're ordering around, you gilt-striped, monkey-doodle dandy?” “That motor-boat is coming after me.” “Think you're of all that importance, hey? No, sir! It's a pack of 'em chasing me to make me go back into port and be sued and libeled and attached by cheap lawyers.” “You ought to be seized and libeled! You had no business ratching out of that harbor in the dark.” “Ought to have taken a rising vote of dudes, hey, to find out whether I had the right to h'ist my mudhook or not?” “I'm not here to argue. You can do that in court. I tell you to come into the wind and wait for that boat.” “You'd better, Cap Candage,” bleated Oakum Otie. “This is--” “Shut up! I'm running my own schooner, Mr. Speed.” “But he is one of the--” “I don't care if he is one of the Apostles. I know my own business. Shut up! Hold her on her course!” He took two turns along the quarter-deck, squinting up into the night. “Look here, Candage, you and I are going to have a lot of trouble with each other if you don't show some common sense. I must get back to my yacht.” “Jump overboard and swim back. I ain't preventing. I didn't ask you on board. You can leave when you get ready. But this schooner is bound for New York, they're in a hurry for this lumber, and I ain't stopping at way stations!” He took another look at the weather, licked his thumb, and held it against the breeze. “Sou'west by sou', and let her run! And shut up!” he commanded his mate. Mayo grabbed one of the yawl davits and sprang to the rail. “We're some bigger than a needle, but so long as the haystack stays thick enough I guess we needn't worry!” remarked Captain Candage, cocking his ear to listen to the motor-boat's exhaust. “Hoi-oi!” shouted Mayo into the night astern. He knew that men hear indistinctly over the noise of a gasoline-engine, but he had resolved to keep shouting. “This way, men! This way with that boat!” “'Vast heaving on that howl!” commanded Candage. But Mayo persisted with all his might. His attention was confined wholly to his efforts, and he was not prepared for the sudden attack from behind. The master of the _Polly_ seized Mayo's legs and yanked him backward to the deck. The young man fell heavily, and his head thumped the planks with violence which flung him into insensibility.