It was some satisfaction to me to tell Withrow just about what I did think of him before I went. He didn't quite throw me out of the door, although he was big enough for that; but he looked as if he wanted to. And maybe he would have, too, or tried it, only I said, "Mind I don't give you what Tommie Clancy threatened to give you once," and his nerve went flat. I couldn't have handled him as Clancy had any more than I could have hove a barrel of salt mackerel over my head, which was what the strong fishermen of the port were doing about that time to prove their strength; but the bluff went, and I couldn't help throwing out my chest as I went out the door and thinking that I was getting to be a great judge of human nature. II A LITTLE JOG ALONG THE DOCKS I was sorry to lose my job. I was twenty years old, without a trade or special knowledge of any kind, and beyond the outfitting of fishing vessels, knowing nothing of any business, and with no more than a high school education--and that two years behind me--and I knew of no place in Gloucester where I could begin all over and right away get as much pay as I had left behind me. I might go to Boston, of course, and try for something there--I was not ten minutes out of Withrow's before I thought of doing that. But a little further thought and I knew there were more capable men than I walking the streets of Boston looking for work. However, a lot could happen before I would have to worry, and so I decided to take the air and think it over. I might go fishing certainly--I had had a little experience in my school vacations--if my mother would only stand for it. As to that I did not know. If it came to fishing or starving--one or the other--then of course she would have to let me go fishing. But my father had been lost on the Grand Banks with his vessel and all hands--and then one brother was already fishing. So I hardly thought she would allow me, and anyway I knew she would never have a good night's rest while I was out. However, I kept thinking it over. To get away by myself I took a ride over to Essex. There I knew I would find half a dozen vessels on the stocks, and there they were--the latest vessel for the Duncan firm and three more for other firms. I knew one of the ship-carpenters in Elwell's yard, Levi Woodbury, and he was telling me about some of the vessels that had been launched lately. "Of course," he said, "you saw the one launched a few days ago from here--that one built for Mr. Withrow?" I said I had, and that she was a wonder to look at and that I wished Maurice Blake, and not Sam Hollis, was to have her. "Yes," said Levi, "and a pity. Maurice Blake could have sailed her right, though for that matter Sam Hollis is a clever hand to sail a vessel, too. And she ought to sail some, that vessel. But look here at this one for the Duncans and to be launched to-morrow. Designed by Will Somers--know him? Yes? A nice young fellow. Ain't she able-looking?"