to deliver this stone. We've got steam up and
the stuff's goin' over outside. Get your divers ready.
I ain't shovin' no baby carriage and don't you forgit
it. I'm comin' on! Cast off that buoy line, you,"--
this to one of his men.

Captain Joe continued stripping off his leaden
breastplate. He had heard his order repeated and
knew that it had been given correctly,--Baxter's subsequent
proceedings did not interest him. If he
had anything to say in answer it was of no moment
to him. His word was law on the Ledge; first, because
the men daily trusted their lives to his guidance, and,
second, because they all loved him with a love hard
for a landsman to understand, especially today, when
the boss and the gang never, by any possibility, pull
together.

"Baxter says he's comin' on, sir," said Billy, when
he reached the captain's side, the grin on his sunburnt
face widening until its two ends hooked over his ears.
Billy had heard nothing so funny for weeks.

"Comin' on?"

"That's what he hollered. Wants you to git ready
to take his stuff, sir."

I was out of the shanty now. I came in two
jumps. With that squall rushing from the eastward