Free The Odyssey of Ben O'Neal by Theodore Taylor

she was becoming very capable: "I couldn't stand to think of you going to Barbados alone on a hellship. You know nothing about Bridgetown."
    All too true, but not much of a reason to follow me to sea.
    I gathered myself together and made a wise decision. I said, "You two are nothing but common stowaways and I want nothing to do with you. I'll deny I ever saw you in my life."
    I could see the change coming over her, like frost gathering on a moonless night. She replied, very coldly, "We aren't common stowaways. I paid the captain twelve dollars for my passage; four for Boos. I thought you'd be glad to see us."
    "I am not."
    "You should be," she said, eyes smarting.
    Now shaking with rage, I asked, "How did you talk the cap'n into it?"
    "I told him I was going to visit my uncle Salisbury in Bridgetown."
    What a rotten lie! She hated her uncle and he wasn't in Bridgetown.
    "I'm a British subject, Ben. I have all my papers. I can visit any British possession in the world without your help." Calm and calculating as a swamp lynx she was, and just as sneaky. That girl had changed completely in ten days, or else she had hidden her true nature from us all.
    I looked at the dog. How I ever came to love him and tend him as a puppy, I don't know. He had turned into the most unfaithful, troublesome ingrate on earth; cause of everything.
    She spoke again. "I'm sorry you don't appreciate what we've done."
    "Hah," I said, in no way sympathetic to her feelings at this point. Making effort not to yell, I got up close to her sharp nose and said, "I warn you, Tee, you don't know me. Neither does that dog. You're both on your own."
    With that, I turned heels-about and headed back for the galley. She would be the complete ruin of me yet, and had made an awfully good start. I remember pausing outside the galley door and looking over toward the coast. Though easting, we were sailing along about opposite the Virginia border. During the night, we would pass Oregon Inlet, Bodie Island Lighthouse, and Heron Head Shoal, where this had all begun. It entered my mind to launch the yawl, which was chocked down aft, and return to the peace and comfort of the Hatteras shore.

    Later in the day, when the sun was in its fourth quadrant to the west, I was sitting outside the galley peeling potatoes, feeling very low, when Tee strolled up with Boo. She had him on a length of rope.
    "Good afternoon," she said as if shopping at the greengrocer's and definitely with some sort of female vengeance on her tricky mind. "You're the galley boy, aren't you?"
    Oh, ho, she was going to play her evil game to the hilt. I looked all about me, seeing no one near, and then asked, in a plainly hostile voice, "What are you doing up here?"
    "I'm on my promenade, with my dog."
    I glared at her. "What's a promenade?"
    "A walk, a stroll about deck. Passengers do that often."
    I could only think this was going to be a wearing voyage beyond compare. I said, "Tee, how could you tell the cap'n so many lies at one standing?"
    Her smile was chalky. "Would you like me to tell him
one
truth?"
    "No," I said, immediately realizing what she meant. That one could destroy me. No matter how much I protested, Cap'n Reddy would be sure to believe I'd been responsible for them coming aboard; certain to think I'd done it for romance or worse. "No," I repeated.
    For more than an hour over the potato tub, I'd been trying to figure out when she'd come aboard; how she'd worked her conspiracy on the captain. I asked about that.
    "I did it properly. I went to Hudgins & Hurst and waited for the captain. When he came in to pay for his supplies, I discussed the matter with him. It was all done in a few minutes."
    "When did you come aboard?" I asked.
    "Last night, of course. But I certainly didn't want to disturb you." She was always thoughtful.
    "And you stayed in your cabin until we were well offshore?"
    "Yes, we were both very tired, Ben. It had been a long day." That was true. She'd been up at five to sneak