But after the quarrel she looked at Cleggett with a new and more
approving gaze. Neither of them quite realized it, but she had
challenged his ability to dominate her, and she had been worsted; he
had unconsciously met and satisfied in her that subtle inherent craving
for domination which all women possess and so few will admit the
possession of.

Cleggett started across the sands toward Morris's with an automatic
pistol slung in a shoulder holster under his left arm and a sword cane
in his hand. He paused a moment by the scene of the explosion of the
night before, but daylight told him nothing that lantern light had
failed to reveal. He had no very definite plan, although he thought it
possible that he might gain some information. The more he reflected on
the attitude of Morris's, the more it irritated him, and he yearned to
make this irritation known.

Perhaps there was more than a little of the spirit of bravado in the
call he proposed to pay. He planned, the next day, to sail the Jasper
B. out into the bay and up and down the coast for a few miles, to give
himself and his men a bit of practice in navigation before setting out
for the China Seas. And he could not bear to think that the hostile
denizens of Morris's should think that he had moved the Jasper B. from
her position through any fear of them. He reasoned that the most
pointed way of showing his opinion of them would be to walk casually
into Morris's barroom and order a drink or two. If Cleggett had a
fault as a commander it lay in these occasional foolhardy impulses
which he found it difficult to control. Julius Caesar had the same
sort of pride, which, in Caesar's case, amounted to positive vanity.
In fact, the character of Caesar and the character of Cleggett had many
points in common, although Cleggett possessed a nicer sense of honor
than Caesar.

The main entrance to Morris's was on the west side. From the west
verandah one could enter directly either the main dining-room, at the
north side of the building, the office, or the barroom. The barroom,
which was large, ran the whole length of the south side of the place.
Doors also led into the barroom, from the south verandah, which was
built over the water, and from the east verandah, which was visible
from the Jasper B.--and onto the roof of which Cleggett had seen Loge
tumble the limp body of his victim, Heinrich. That had been only the
day before, but so much had happened since that Clegge