The captain listened with apparent enjoyment; she could not tell whether he was relishing her story or his slowly puffed cigar.

In the end she waited for his answer, but evidently none was forthcoming.
"Now," she said at last, "I know something about ships and sailors, and I know that if this fellow was to appeal against you after you touch port, a judge would weigh a single word of yours against a whole sentence of Harrigan's.

It would be a different matter if a disinterested person pressed a charge of cruelty against you.

I am such a person; I would press such a charge; I have the money, the time, and the inclination to do it." She read the slight hesitation in his manner, not as if he were impressed by what she had to say, but as though he was questioning himself as to whether he should give her any answer at all.

It made her wish fervently that she were a man--and a big one.