p
by the altercation, was coming out to see what all the noise was about.

"Mr Davis!" cried the captain sternly. "What is the matter?"

The second mate scrambled to his feet, but he could not hold himself
steady and he only muttered some utterly incomprehensible words, his
power of speech vanishing with his equilibrium.

"I dunno, canshay," he murmured helplessly.

"Faugh!" exclaimed Captain Miles in accents of the deepest disgust.
"The man is dead drunk. Take him away at once to the fo'c's'le some of
you. He doesn't come into my cabin again if I know it!"

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

BAD WEATHER.

Later on in the afternoon, some couple of hours or so after he had been
carried into the forecastle, Davis, sobered down by his rest, came aft
again. He did not, however, enter the cabin or go up on the poop, but
remained hanging about the waist, as if uncertain what to do, evidently
"smelling a rat," as the saying goes.

Captain Miles was prepared for this, Moggridge, the boatswain, who had
made many voyages with him, and in whom he placed implicit trust, having
related all that had occurred; so, although he saw Davis approach, he
waited a while till the watch was relieved, when, advancing to the break
of the poop, he hailed the whilom second mate below.

"Davis!" he cried, "I have got something to say to you."

The other had lost all his defiant air now and looked very sheepish and
crest-fallen--so much so, indeed, that he seemed unable at first to
answer the captain.

"Yes, sir," said he at last, looking up and then dropping his eyes again
in an instant, unable to stand the captain's straightforward glance.

"I'm sorry to have to say," continued Captain Miles, speaking slowly and
distinctly, so that every word he uttered was heard fore and aft the
ship, "that you, a responsible officer of this vessel, came on duty
three hours ago in a state of intoxication. The fault would have been
bad enough in one of the ordinary hands, but is doubly so in a man
having charge of the lives of those on board and the safety of the ship
and cargo. Besides, it is not merely on a single occasion that you have
so grossly behaved, as I have noticed of late that you have been several
times under the influence of liquor."

"But, Captain Miles, sir," interrupted Davis at this point. However,
the captain soon silenced him.

"Hear me out, sir," he cried, his voice getting sterner and more
energetic. "Not only have you given way to