" He was a peaceable man, none more; disposed
to stretch a point when it "came to a difference with niggers of some
kind--they had to be taught manners and reason" and he was not averse at
a pinch to--but here were white people--gentlemen, ladies, not to speak
of the crew. He had never spoken to a superior like this before,
and this was prudence, his conviction, a point of view, a point of
principle, a conscious superiority and a burst of resentment hoarded
through years against all the successive and unsatisfactory captains of
his existence. There never had been such an opportunity to show he could
not be put upon. He had one of them on a string and he was going to lead
him a dance. There was courage, too, in it, since he believed himself
fallen unawares into the clutches of a particularly desperate man and
beyond the reach of law.
A certain small amount of calculation entered the audacity of his
remonstrance. Perhaps--it flashed upon him--the yacht's gentry will hear
I stood up for them. This could conceivably be of advantage to a man
who wanted a lift in the world. "Owner of a yacht--badly scared--a
gentleman--money nothing to him." Thereupon Shaw declared with heat that
he couldn't be an accessory either after or before the fact. Those
that never went home--who had nothing to go to perhaps--he interjected,
hurriedly, could do as they liked.
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