o the young lady behind
the bar, usually a prime favourite, that she took offence, and availing
herself, for private reasons, of a public weapon, coldly declined to
serve him with a fourth.

"Wot?" said the astounded Fazackerly, coming out of his haze.

"You've had enough!" said the girl firmly. "You get aboard again, _and
mind how you do so._"

The skipper gazed at her for a moment in open-mouthed horror, and then
jamming his hat firmly over his brows, stumbled out of the door and into
the street, where he ran full into the arms of another mariner who was
just entering.

"Why, Zacky, my boy," cried the latter, clapping him lustily on the
back, "how goes it?"

In broken, indignant accents the other told him.

"You come in with me," said the new-comer.

"I'll never enter that pub again," said the skipper.

"You come in with me," said the master-mind firmly.

Captain Fazackerly hesitated a moment, and then, feeling that he was
safe in the hands of the master of a foreign-going barque, followed him
into the bar, and from behind his back glared defiantly at his fair foe.

"Two glasses o' gin, my dear," said Captain Tweedie with the slightest
possible emphasis.

The girl, who knew her customer, served him without a murmur, deftly
avoiding the gaze of ungenerous triumph with which the injured captain
favoured her as he raised the cooling beverage to his lips. The glass
emptied, he placed it on the counter and sighed despondently.

"There's something up with you, Zacky," said Tweedie, eyeing him closely
as he bit the end off a cigar; "you've got something on your mind."

"I've been crool hurt," said his friend in a hard, cold voice. "My
word ain't good enough for the new guv'nor; he wants what he calls a
disbursement sheet."

"Well, give him one," said Tweedie. "You know what it is, don't you?"

Captain Fazackerly shook his head, and pushing the glasses along the
counter nodded for them to be refilled.

"You come aboard with me," said Tweedie after they had emptied them.

Captain Fazackerly, who had a doglike faith in his friend, followed him
into the street and on to his barque. In a general way he experienced
a social rise when he entered the commodious cabin of that noble craft,
and his face grew in importance as his host, after motioning him to a
seat, placed a select array of writing materials before him.

"I s'pose I've got to do it," he said slowly.

"Of course you have," said Tweedie, rolling his