Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/131

 They don't salute nobody as I ever heard of. What's that 'ere Hatton Commodore of?" Turner explained that it was merely a complimentary title conferred on the yacht owner by his cronies.

"His handle come off'n the same bush as mine did," chuckled the old fellow. "If you've ever blowed a whistle on the sea or fired a popgun at a clay pigeon on land and gits a few years on ye, these folks shoots a Cap'n or a Gen'ral at ye. I knowed a man once who was a gen'ral nuisance, and his acquaintances—he didn't have no friends—all called him 'Gen'ral.' It's the same as the police force. You calls 'em all 'officer.' Thar ain't no more prives left above the sod. But Gen'ral or Commodore, I'll have the light fer him. Let the wind blow high or low, the light's always a-burnin'; and if they come close enough to the shoals to see it and don't go a-scootin' off like them water-bugs that slides on a pond, they're spilin' for trouble, and submarines ain't nothin' to what them shoals kin do for 'em when they takes a notion.

"Didn't I tell ye, mates," he continued, addressing the whole group, "a blow was