The present situation is the one we're interested in, not the lordly past of your humble and, I trust, obedient servant." His smile was most engaging, but back of it the two seamen read strength, decision, integrity.

The gay, bantering, whilom attitude of this unusual young man was not assumed.

It was not a pose.

He was not a dare-devil, nor was he a care-free, unstable youth who had matured abruptly in the exercise of power.

On the contrary, he was,--and Captain Trigger knew it,--the personification of confidence, an optimist to whom victory and defeat are equally unavoidable and therefore to be reckoned as one in the vast scheme of human endeavour; a fighter who merely rests on his arms but never lays them down; a spirit that absorbs the bitters and the sweets of life with equal relish.
Captain Trigger was not slow in making up his mind.