You can't keep that matter out of your speeches. It's the
sort of thing I've been hearing more or less ever since I came on board."
Mr. Powell, speaking truthfully, did not mean to speak offensively. He
had instincts of wisdom; he felt that this was a serious affair, for it
had nothing to do with reason. He did not want to raise an enemy for
himself in the mate. And Mr. Franklin did not take offence. To Mr.
Powell's truthful statement he answered with equal truth and simplicity
that it was very likely, very likely. With a thing like that (next door
to witchcraft almost) weighing on his mind, the wonder was that he could
think of anything else. The poor man must have found in the restlessness
of his thoughts the illusion of being engaged in an active contest with
some power of evil; for his last words as he went lingeringly down the
poop ladder expressed the quaint hope that he would get him, Powell, "on
our side yet."
Mr. Powell--just imagine a straightforward youngster assailed in this
fashion on the high seas--answered merely by an embarrassed and uneasy
laugh which reflected exactly the state of his innocent soul.
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