t do you mean by such conduct,
sir? What possible excuse can you have for not--"

"Pardon me, sir," interrupted Douglas. "I fear you are making a
mistake, or that you have been misinformed. I _did_ put the paint-work
in hand directly you told me; and the work was nearly completed when we
ran into that heavy sea yesterday. You know that we shipped it solid
over our bows, and the paint being still wet was, of course, nearly all
washed off. I set the men to work, however, to clean things up again,
and they have restarted the job this morning. You can see them at work
now."

"Yes, of course I can," roared Fisher; "and I wanted to know why you had
not seen fit to start the job until just now. However, you have given
me an excuse, and I suppose I must accept it; but if you had carried out
my orders with a little more promptitude the paint would have been dry
before we ran into that breeze. You can go now, sir, and take care that
I do not have cause to reprimand you again. I am getting sick of your
laziness, incapacity, and insubordination."

Douglas turned on his heel and left the skipper without any more ado,
but his cheeks burned with indignation at the injustice of it all. He
had carried out his orders to the letter directly they had been given
him, and it was certainly not his fault that the work had to be done
over again. Neither was he lazy nor insubordinate; while, far from
being incapable, he had earned the good-will of every skipper with whom
he had sailed, with the solitary exception of this one. He returned to
his cabin and lay down to think things over, with the result that he
went on duty a few hours later more than ever resolved to make this his
last voyage under Captain Fisher. True, he would be compelled to desert
and would consequently lose his certificate, and probably have some
difficulty in getting another ship; but even that would be better than
the life he was living at present, which, he felt, was not fit for a
dog.

The days slipped slowly away, however, in spite of all the discomfort
and annoyance; and Douglas at length began to look upon his quarrels
with the skipper as unavoidable, and to treat them as a matter of
course. The _Pericles_ rounded Cape Horn, steamed up the Chilian coast,
and on January 7, 1879, dropped her anchor in Valparaiso harbour. The
long and dreary voyage was at an end at last! Douglas and Terry O'Meara
had long before this completed all their plans for an ea