"Yes, it's all right," he said.

"Must have rotted and come sweet again.

Queer, isn't it, Mr.Dodd?
Though I've known the same on a Cape Horner." There was something in his intonation that made me look him in the face; he stood a little on tiptoe to look right and left about the ship, like a man filled with curiosity, and his whole expression and bearing testified to some suppressed excitement.
"You don't believe what you're saying!" I broke out.
"O, I don't know but what I do!" he replied, laying a hand upon me soothingly.

"The thing's very possible.

Only, I'm bothered about something else." And with that he called a hand, gave him the code flags, and stepped himself to the main signal halliards, which vibrated under the weight of the ensign overhead.