very unfavourably, since he had been so
badly treated by the other parties. He was never heard to mention the
war, for example, or his own participation in the fray. He talked,
indeed, as a very garrulous being from another planet might, after a few
intensive lessons on human frailty. At the present moment he was giving
it as his fixed opinion, and supporting it with an overwhelming mass of
fresh evidence, that everybody--the agent in Port Said, the crew
including the mate and the engineer, the warship who had peremptorily
demanded his name and port of origin, and the captain of the port who
had assigned him a bad berth nearly three miles from the dock--was in a
conspiracy to make his life a hell on earth. After he had shaken hands
with Mr. Spokesly his arm dropped slackly across his knee once more,
leaving the cigarette-stained fingers to make expressive motions
emphasizing the ghastliness of the tale he unfolded. And never once did
he raise his eyes to either of his auditors. It almost seemed as though
he could not bear to look in the faces of those beings from whom it was
impossible to obtain justice.

"I ask you, what is a man to do? What can he do, as commander of the
vessel, when his own officers decline, absolutely pointblank decline, to
give him ordinary decent respect? Let alone carrying out explicit
orders. It's enough to make a man throw up the whole thing in disgust.
If I've told my chief officer once I've told him fifty times, I will not
have a cuspidor on the bridge for the man at the wheel. My helmsman must
have the common decency to refrain from spitting while on duty. What is
the result? He laughs in my face. Simply takes not the slightest notice.
The same with everything else. Do I give orders to have the captain's
tea served at four sharp? What does he do but stops the steward on his
way down, drinks the tea, spits in the cup, and tells the man to take it
to the captain. And when I ordered him to his room he threatened me.
Actually threatened the commander of the ship. I of course logged him
for insolent, unbearable, and insubordinate behaviour, and when I read
the entry to him according to regulations, he tore the book to pieces
and not only threw them at me but offered me bodily violence. I was
attacked! And the engineer is, if anything, worse. Stood looking in the
port and laughed at the chief officer's ruffianly behaviour. Do you
suppose for a single moment I can tolerate this sort of thing?"

"