ered the cabin. There he found the captain of the
_Proserpine_ in a position very unfavorable to longevity. His legs were
crooked over the seat of his chair, and his head was on the ground. His
handkerchief was tight round his neck, and the man himself dead drunk,
and purple in the face.

Mr. Hazel instantly undid his stock, on which the gallant seaman muttered
inarticulately. He then took his feet off the chair and laid them on the
ground, and put the empty bottle under the animal's neck.

But he had no sooner done all this than he had a serious misgiving. Would
not this man's death have been a blessing? Might not his life prove
fatal?

The thought infuriated him, and he gave the prostrate figure a heavy kick
that almost turned it over, and the words, "Duty to employers," gurgled
out of its mouth directly.

It really seemed as if these sounds were independent of the mind, and
resided at the tip of Hudson's tongue, so that a thorough good kick
could, at any time, shake them out of his inanimate body.

Thus do things ludicrous and things terrible mingle in the real world;
only to those who are in the arena, the ludicrous passes unnoticed, being
overshadowed by its terrible neighbor.

And so it was with Hazel. He saw nothing absurd in all this; and in that
prostrate, insensible hog, commanding the ship, forsooth, and carrying
all their lives in his hands, he saw the mysterious and alarming only;
saw them so, and felt them, that he lay awake all night thinking what he
should do, and early next day he went into the mate's cabin, and said to
him: "Mr. Wylie, in any other ship I should speak to the captain, and not
to the mate; but here that would be no use, for you are the master, and
he is your servant."

"Don't tell him so, sir, for he doesn't think small beer of himself."

"I shall waste no more words on him. It is to you I speak, and you know I
speak the truth. Here is a ship, in which, for certain reasons known to
yourself, the captain is under the mate."

"Well, sir," said Wylie good-humoredly, "it is no use trying to deceive a
gentleman like you. Our skipper is an excellent seaman, but he has got a
fault." Then Wylie imitated, with his hand, the action of a person
filling his glass.

"And you are here to keep him sober, eh?"

Wylie nodded.

"Then why do you ply him with liquor?"

"I don't, sir."

"You do. I have seen you do it a dozen times. And last night you took rum
into his room, and made him so