uggest it to you?"

"No."

"Shall I send in the policeman, sir?" asked Gilray, opening the door.

"Ask him to wait for a moment," Girdlestone answered.

"And now, captain, to return to the original point, shall we dry dock
the _Black Eagle_ and reduce the salary, or do you see your way to going
back in her on the same terms?"

"I'll go back and be damned to it!" said the captain recklessly,
plunging his hands into the pockets of his pea jacket and plumping back
into his chair.

"That's right," his grim employer remarked approvingly.

"But swearing is a most sinful practice. Send the policeman away,
Ezra."

The young man went out with an amused smile, and the two were left
together again.

"You'll not be able to pass the Government inspector unless you do
something to her," the seaman said after a long pause, during which he
brooded over his wrongs.

"Of course we shall do something. The firm is not mean, though it
avoids unnecessary expense. We'll put a coat of paint on her, and some
pitch, and do up the rigging. She's a stout old craft, and with one of
the smartest sailors afloat in command of her--for we always give you
credit for being that--she'll run many a voyage yet."

"I'm paid for the risk, guv'nor, as you said just now," the sailor
remarked. "But don't it seem kind o' hard on them as isn't--on the
mates an' the hands?"

"There is always a risk, my dear captain. There is nothing in the world
without risk. You remember what is said about those who go down to the
sea in ships. They see the wonders of the deep, and in return they
incur some little danger. My house in Eccleston Square might be shaken
down by an earthquake, or a gale might blow in the walls, but I'm not
always brooding over the chance of it. There's no use your taking it
for granted that some misfortune will happen to the _Black Eagle_."

The sailor was silenced, but not convinced by his employer's logic.
"Well, well," he said sulkily, "I am going, so there's an end of it, and
there's no good in having any more palaver about it. You have your
object in running rotten ships, and you make it worth my while to take
my chances in them. I'm suited, and you're suited, so there's no more
to be said."

"That's right. Have some more rum?"

"No, not a spot."

"Why not?"

"Because I likes to keep my head pretty clear when I'm a-talkin' to you,
Muster Girdlestone. Out o' your office I'll drink to further orders,
but I won't