"Lay me alongside the LUCY BELLE," he told Marsh.
But Simpson, in a position of importance at last, was disinclined to
listen. He had worn his blue clothes and brass buttons for a good
many years in charge only of boxes and barrels. Now at a stroke he
found himself commander over tenscore people. Likewise, at fifty
cents a head, he foresaw a good thing as long as high water should
last. He had risen nobly to the occasion; for he had even hoisted
his bunting and brought with him the local brass band. Orde,
brusque in his desire to hurry through an affair of minor
importance, rubbed the man the wrong way.
"I reckon I've some rights on this river," Captain Simpson concluded
the argument, "and I ain't agoin' to be bulldozed out of them."
The excursionists, typical "trippers" from Redding, Holland,
Monrovia and Muskegon, cheered this sentiment and jeered at Orde.
Orde nodded briefly.
"Marsh," said he to his captain in a low voice, "get a crew and take
them in charge. Run 'em off."
As soon as the tug touched the piling, he was off and away, paying
no further attention to a matter already settled. Captain Marsh
called a dozen rivermen to him; laid the SPRITE alongside the LUCY
BELLE, and in spite of Simpson's scandalised protests and an
incipient panic among the passengers, thrust aside the regular crew
of the steamship and took charge.
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