“And today we go from school to high school, and from high school to college, and then we go into the office or become doctors and things, and the only adventures we know about are the ones we read in books.  Why, just as sure as I’m sitting here on the stern of the sloop Mist, just so sure am I that we wouldn’t know what to do if a real adventure came along.  Now, would we?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I answered non-committally.

“Well, you wouldn’t be a coward, would you?” he demanded.

I was sure I wouldn’t and said so.

“But you don’t have to be a coward to lose your head, do you?”

I agreed that brave men might get excited.

“Well, then,” Paul summed up, with a note of regret in his voice, “the chances are that we’d spoil the adventure.  So it’s a shame, and that’s all I can say about it.”

“The adventure hasn’t come yet,” I answered, not caring to see him down in the mouth over nothing.  You see, Paul was a peculiar fellow in some things, and I knew him pretty well.  He read a good deal, and had a quick imagination, and once in a while he’d get into moods like this one.  So I said, “The adventure hasn’t come yet, so there’s no use worrying about its being spoiled.  For all we know, it might turn out splendidly.”

Paul didn’t say anything for some time, and I was thinking he was out of the mood, when he spoke up suddenly: 

“Just imagine, Bob Kellogg, as we’re sailing along now, just as we are, and never mind what for, that a boat should bear down upon us with armed men in it, what would you do to repel boarders?  Think you could rise to it?”

“What would you do?” I asked pointedly.  “Remember, we haven’t even a single shotgun aboard.”

“You would surrender, then?” he demanded angrily.  “But suppose they were going to kill you?”

“I’m not saying what I’d do,” I answered stiffly, beginning to get a little angry myself.  “I’m asking what you’d do, without weapons of any sort?”

“I’d find something,” he replied—­rather shortly, I thought.

I began to chuckle.  “Then the adventure wouldn’t be spoiled, would it?  And you’ve been talking rubbish.”

Paul struck a match, looked at his watch, and remarked that it was nearly one o’clock—­a way he had when the argument went against him.  Besides, this was the nearest we ever came to quarreling now, though our share of squabbles had fallen to us in the earlier days of our friendship.  I had just seen a little white light ahead when Paul spoke again.

“Anchor-light,” he said.  “Funny place for people to drop the hook.  It may be a scow-schooner with a dinky astern, so you’d better go wide.”

I eased the Mist several points, and, the wind puffing up, we went plowing along at a pretty fair speed, passing the light so wide that we could not make out what manner of craft it marked.  Suddenly the Mist slacked up in a slow and easy way, as though running upon soft mud.  We were both startled.  The wind was blowing stronger than ever, and yet we were almost at a standstill.