en--so far, at least, as I am concerned--he is only a passenger. Now,
those are the terms upon which I am willing to undertake the service you
require of me; and you may take them or leave them, just as you please."

"They seems reasonable enough, I won't deny it," admitted Polson, "and I
dare say as everybody'll be willin' enough to agree to 'em, all except
Wilde, I mean. I know he won't like the hidea of not bein' allowed to
hinterfere until we arrives at the hiland. Can't ye make that there
part a trifle easier, Mr Troubridge?"

"No," said I resolutely, "on no account whatever; on the contrary, that
is the proviso upon which I shall insist most strongly. Wilde may be an
excellent schoolmaster, for aught I know to the contrary, but he is
neither a seaman nor a navigator; and I will never consent to his being
allowed to interfere, either directly or indirectly, with matters of
which he possesses no knowledge. You cannot have two captains to one
ship, you know. If he is to be captain you will have no need of me; but
if I am to be captain I will not allow anyone--and least of all a
landsman--to interfere with me."

"Ay, ay, Mr Troubridge, yes, I can see now as you are quite right,"
agreed the boatswain. "It wouldn't never do to have him hinterferin'
and givin' horders about things he don't understand. If he was allowed
to do it there's others as would soon want to do the same, and then we
should soon all be in a pretty mess. D'ye mind writin' them conditions
of yours down upon a sheet of paper, so as I can read 'em out to all
hands, sir? And if they agree to 'em I'll get 'em to sign the paper and
then I'll hand it back to you."

"Very well," said I; "that arrangement will do excellently. And, see
here, Polson, if all you seamen are willing to sign, I don't care a
brass button whether the emigrants do or not. If you men for'ard are
all agreed that those conditions of mine are just and reasonable, we
need not trouble ourselves as to what the emigrants think of them,
because, you know, they can't take the ship from us, however
dissatisfied they may be."

"No, no, in course they can't, Mr Troubridge," agreed the boatswain,
grinning appreciatively, as though the helplessness of the emigrants was
a fact that had not hitherto occurred to him.

We had now thrashed the matter out, and I had succeeded in bringing
Polson into a far more pliant frame of mind than I had ever dared to
hope for. I therefore determine