"Let me have the canoe, otherwise I must swim to the ship."

"I declare," continued Becker, "that Willis exaggerates the
requirements of his duty. There are stronger forces to which the human
will must yield. It is one thing to desert one's post in the hour of
danger, and another to have come on shore at the express desire of a
superior officer, when the weather was fine, and nothing presaged a
storm."

"If there is danger," continued the obstinate sailor, whom the united
strength of the four men could scarcely restrain, "I ought to share
it; that is my duty and I must."

"But," said Wolston, "all the boatswains and pilots in the world can
do nothing against hurricanes and waterspouts; their duty consists in
steering the ship clear of reefs and quicksands, and not in fighting
with the elements."

"There is one thing you forget, Mr. Wolston."

"And what is that, Willis?"

"It is to be side by side with your comrades in the hour of calamity,
to aid them if you can, and to perish with them if such be the will of
Fate. At this moment, poor Littlestone may be on the point of taking
up his winter quarters in the body of a shark. But there, if the
sloop is lost while I am here on shore, I will not survive her; all
that you can say or do will not prevent me doing myself justice."

At this moment Jack, who had disappeared during this discussion,