Arthur, leaning on the rail, was cursing the dock boat at the buoy.
The lock was waiting for them, and he lurched to the telegraph,
slammed the handle over with a clatter and rang for steam. The pilot
and the old man leaned quickly to the indicator; he had ordered full
speed ahead.
"Stop her!" snapped the pilot as the decks beneath them pulsed to
the awakening engines. Arthur's hand was yet on the handle, but the
old man's grip on his wrist was firm, and the bell below clanged
again. The young Captain wheeled on them furiously.
"Get off my brish," he shouted. "Down with you, th' pair of you." He
made to advance on them, those two square old shipmen; he projected a
general ruin; but his feet were not his own. He reeled against the
rail.
"Port your helm!" commanded the pilot calmly. "Slow ahead!" Old
Captain Price rang for him and they began to draw out. Ashore the
wedding guests were a flutter of waving handkerchiefs and hats. They
thanked God Minnie was not on the bridge. At the rail, Arthur lolled
stupidly and seemed to be fighting down a nausea.
"Steady!" came the sure voice of the pilot. "Steady as you go! Stop
her!"
Arthur Price slipped then and came to his knees. Ashore, the party
was cheering.
"Up with you, Arthur," cried the old man in an agony. "Them people's
looking. Stiffen up, my boy."
"Half speed ahead!" droned the pilot, never turning his head.
The old man rattled the handle over and stooped to his son.
"You can lie down when you turn her over to the mate," he said
grimly. "Till then you'll stand up and show yourself, if your feet
perish under you. I'll hold you."
They were drawing round a tier of big vessels, going cautiously, not
with the speed and knife-edge accuracy with which the old man had
been wont to take her out, but groping safely through the craft about
them. Arthur swayed and smiled and slackened, his head nodding as
though in response to the friends on the dock who never abated their
farewell clamor. The grip on his arm held him up, for he had weakened
on his drink, as excitable men will.
"Starboard!" ordered the pilot, and Captain Price half turned to pass
the word. It was then that it happened. The drunken man pivoted where
he stood and stumbled sideways, catching himself on the telegraph.
The old man snatched him upright, for his knees were melting under
him, and from below there came the clang of the bell. Arthur Price
had pulled the handle over. Forthwith she quickened; she drove ahead
for the stern of the ship she was being conned to clear; her prow was
aimed at it, like a descending sword.
"Hard a-port!" roared the pilot, jumping back to bellow to the wheel.
"Spin her round, sheer over with her!" The wheel engine set up its
clatter; with a savage wrench the old Captain shook his son to
steadiness for an instant and lifted his eyes to see the Burdock
charging to disaster.
"Stop her!" cried the pilot. "Full astern!" Captain Price tightened
his grip on his son's arm and reached for the handle with his other
hand.
Clang! clang! went the deep-toned bell below, and swoosh went the
reversed propeller. The pilot's orders rattled like hail on a roof;
she came round, and old Captain Price had a glimpse of a knot of
frantic men at the taff-rail of the ship they barely cleared. Then,
slowly they wedged her into the lock-mouth and hauled in.
"Close thing!" said the pilot, panting a little.
The old man let his son lean against the rail, and turned-to him.
"P'raps not," he said. "Pilot, what did I ring them engines with?"
The other stared. "I had a hold of him with this hand of mine; I
reached for the handle with my--other--hand."
"But," the pilot was perplexed--"but, Captain, you ain't got no other
hand.."
"No!" Captain Price shook his head. "But I rang the engines with it
all the same. I rang the Burdock out of a bump with it; and--" he
hesitated a moment and nodded his head sideways at the limp, lolling
body of his son--"I rang his honor off the mud with it."
The pilot cleared his brow; he simply gave the matter up. "And what
about now?" he asked. "He ain't fit to be trusted with her?"
"No," said Captain Price firmly. "He's going to retire from the sea;
and till he does I'll sail as a passenger. And then I'll take the
Burdock again. She don't care about that old spar of mine, the
Burdock don't."