Read "Choice Spirits" by W.W. Jacobs online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The day was fine, and the breeze so light that the old patched sails / were taking the schooner along at a gentle three knots per hour. A sail / or two shone like snow in the offing, and a gull hovered in the air / astern. From the cabin to the galley, and from the galley to the untidy / tangle in the bows, there was no sign of anybody to benefit by the / conversation of the skipper and mate as they discussed a wicked and / mutinous spirit which had become observable in the crew.
"It's sheer rank wickedness, that's what it is," said the skipper, a / small elderly man, with grizzled beard and light blue eyes.