ing at a slab of fish he had
dragged from the table, bringing most of the cloth, with the cruet,
after him. On the settee behind the table lay a man in trousers and
singlet, snoring. He was wearing red silk socks full of holes, and a fly
crawled along his full red lips below a large black moustache. In a
pantry on one side a young man with a black moustache and in a blue
apron, spotted with food, was smoking a cigarette and wiping some dishes
with an almost incredibly dirty cloth.

"Where's the cap'en?" demanded Mr. Spokesly in a voice so harsh and
aggressive he hardly recognized it himself. The young man came out
wiping his hands on his hips and shrugging his shoulders.

"Where's the mate?"

The young man pointed at the figure on the settee. Mr. Spokesly went
round the table and gave the recumbent gentleman a shake. Uttering a
choking snort, the late chief officer opened his eyes, sat up, and
looked round in a way that proved conclusively he had no clear notion of
his locality. Eventually he discovered that the shakings came from a
total stranger and he focussed a full stare from his black eyes upon Mr.
Spokesly.

"I'm the new mate," said the latter. "Where's my cabin?"

"Ai!" said the other, staring, both hands on the dirty table-cloth. "Ai!
You gotta nerve. What you doin' here, eh?"

"All right," said Mr. Spokesly, "I'll see to you in a minute. Here, you!
Where's the mate's cabin, savvy? Room, cabin, bunk."

The young man, wiping his hands again on his hips, went over to an
opening which led down a stairway and beckoned. Mr. Spokesly followed.

What he found was very much of a piece with the saloon. One side of the
ship was occupied by a large room marked "Captain." On the other side
were two cabins, the forward one of which he was given to understand was
his. To call it a pigsty would not convey any conception of the dire
disorder of it. The delicate hardwood panelling of the yacht had been
painted over with a thick layer of greenish-white paint; and this was
coated, at each end of the bunk, with a black deposit of human origin
where the oiled head and neglected feet of the late incumbent had
rubbed. The walnut table was marked with circles where hot cups had been
set down, and the edges were charred by cigarette-ends left to burn. The
basin was cracked and half full of black water. Mr. Spokesly gave one
glance at the toilet shelf and then turned away hastily to the young
man, who was watching him in some c