Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/222

 whether you-all would like to steam around a while in the launch."

"Is she yours to command?" asked Jim.

"Surely is!" Steve assented. "Captain Fraser's our Flotilla Commander, and when he found out I knew you, he said he did, too. So he sent me over here, because he couldn't come himself, and here's a perfectly good steamer."

"We'd love to go," Elspeth said.

"I doubt if Garth would care about it," Jim remarked solemnly, calling forth a look of deep reproach from his son.

When they boarded the launch, the coxswain saluted and the barefooted sailors stood at attention. Garth was quite overcome with pride and gazed rapturously at the young officer.

"I wish I could take you aboard of a ship," said Steve, as they settled themselves under the canopy and the launch puffed away from the pier, "but I haven't the authority. Awfully strict nowadays. We'll go round among 'em, though."

As they neared the Billington, another steam-launch was seen approaching, a pennant fluttering at her bow.

"Senior boat," said Steve, as the engine of