Once or twice he went in bodily when the hove-down bowsprit put which he crawled, dipped under, but he succeeded in tying up the foot of that sail too, and scrambled aft again breathless and gasping.

He noticed that his employer, who did not seem to mind it, was almost as wet as he was.
"I'm sorry, but you told me I could let her go," he apologized.
Stirling smiled somewhat dryly.
"I'm not blaming you; but you don't quite finish.

Wondering why I did it, aren't you ?" Weston did not admit it, but perhaps his face betrayed him, for his companion nodded.
"Well," he said, "you told me that you could sail a boat, and I wanted to make sure of it.

Seems to me anybody could hold the tiller when she's going easy in smooth water.

Know how I used to choose when I wanted a chopper, in the days when I worked along with the boys?
Well, I gave the man an ax, set him up in front of the biggest tree I could find, and made him chop." There could be no doubt about the efficiency of that simple test, and Weston recognized that it was very much in keeping with his employer's character, though he fancied that it was one which, if rigorously applied everywhere, would leave a good many men without an occupation.
He only laughed, however; and nothing more was said until the boat reached in shoreward on another tack.