n 'ad gone to, sir. He
slipped past me upstairs, sir.'

"I felt mighty uncomfortable.

"`That's all right, Symons. I know the gentleman,' says Mr Powell as
serious as a judge.

"`Very well, sir. Of course, sir. I saw the gentleman running races
all by 'isself down 'ere, so I...'

"`It's all right I tell you,' Mr Powell cut him short with a wave of
his hand; and, as the old fraud walked off at last, he raised his eyes
to me. I did not know what to do: stay there, or clear out, or say that
I was sorry.

"`Let's see,' says he, `what did you tell me your name was?'

"Now, observe, I hadn't given him my name at all and his question
embarrassed me a bit. Somehow or other it didn't seem proper for me to
fling his own name at him as it were. So I merely pulled out my new
certificate from my pocket and put it into his hand unfolded, so that he
could read _Charles Powell_ written very plain on the parchment.

"He dropped his eyes on to it and after a while laid it quietly on the
desk by his side. I didn't know whether he meant to make any remark on
this coincidence. Before he had time to say anything the glass door
came open with a bang and a tall, active man rushed in with great
strides. His face looked very red below his high silk hat. You could
see at once he was the skipper of a big ship.

"Mr Powell, after telling me in an undertone to wait a little,
addressed him in a friendly way.

"`I've been expecting you in every moment to fetch away your Articles,
Captain. Here they are all ready for you.' And turning to a pile of
agreements lying at his elbow he took up the topmost of them. From
where I stood I could read the words: `Ship _Ferndale_' written in a
large round hand on the first page.

"`No, Mr Powell, they aren't ready, worse luck,' says that skipper.
`I've got to ask you to strike out my second officer.' He seemed
excited and bothered. He explained that his second mate had been
working on board all the morning. At one o'clock he went out to get a
bit of dinner and didn't turn up at two as he ought to have done.
Instead there came a messenger from the hospital with a note signed by a
doctor. Collar-bone and one arm broken. Let himself be knocked down by
a pair-horse van while crossing the road outside the dock gate, as if he
had neither eyes nor ears. And the ship ready to leave the dock at six
o'clock to-morrow morning!

"Mr Powell dipped his pen and began to turn the leaves of the agr