Page:Frank Stockton--Adventures of Captain Horn.djvu/128

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN HORN negroes down to the Rackbirds' camp, and bring away more stores."

"Oh, let me go!" cried Ralph. "It is the cruellest thing in the world to keep me cooped up here. I never go anywhere, and never do anything."

But the captain shook his head. "I am sorry, my boy," said he, "to keep you back so much, but it cannot be helped. When I go away, I shall make it a positive condition that you do not leave your sister and Mrs. Cliff, and I do not want you to begin now." A half-hour afterwards, when the captain and his party had set out, Ralph came to his sister and sat down by her. "Do you know," said he, "what I think of Captain Horn? I think he is a brave man, and a man who knows what to do when things turn up suddenly, but, for all that, I think he is a tyrant. He does what he pleases, and he makes other people do what he pleases, and consults nobody."

"My dear Ralph," said Edna, "if you knew how glad I am we have such a man to manage things, you would not think in that way. A tyrant is just what we want in our situation, provided he knows what ought to be done, and I think that Captain Horn does know."

"That's just like a woman," said Ralph. "I might have expected it."

During the rest of that day and the morning of the next, everybody in the camp worked hard and did what could be done to help the captain prepare for his voyage, and even Ralph, figuratively speaking, put his hand to the oar.

The boat was provisioned for a long voyage, though 116