Well, have you ever seen a shipmaster walking his own deck as if he did not know what he had underfoot?
Have you?
Dam'me if I don't think that he forgets where he is.

Of course he can be no other than a prime seaman; but it's lucky, all the same, he has me on board.

I know by this time what he wants done without being told.
Do you know that I have had no order given me since we left port?
Do you know that he has never once opened his lips to me unless I spoke to him first?
I?
His chief officer; his shipmate for full six years, with whom he had no cross word--not once in all that time.

Aye.

Not a cross look even.