th pride.

"Sigg has asked us for a reliable skipper to take her out," remarked one
of the partners; and the other, after reflecting for a while, said:
"I think MacWhirr is ashore just at present." "Is he? Then wire him
at once. He's the very man," declared the senior, without a moment's
hesitation.

Next morning MacWhirr stood before them unperturbed, having travelled
from London by the midnight express after a sudden but undemonstrative
parting with his wife. She was the daughter of a superior couple who had
seen better days.

"We had better be going together over the ship, Captain," said the
senior partner; and the three men started to view the perfections of the
Nan-Shan from stem to stern, and from her keelson to the trucks of her
two stumpy pole-masts.

Captain MacWhirr had begun by taking off his coat, which he hung on the
end of a steam windless embodying all the latest improvements.

"My uncle wrote of you favourably by yesterday's mail to our good
friends--Messrs. Sigg, you know--and doubtless they'll continue you out
there in command," said the junior partner. "You'll be able to boast of
being in charge of the handiest boat of her size on the coast of China,
Captain," he added.

"Have you? Thank 'ee," mumbled vaguely MacWhirr, to whom the view of
a distant eventuality could appeal no more than the beauty of a wide
landscape to a purblind tourist; and his eyes happening at the moment to
be at rest upon the lock of the cabin door, he walked up to it, full of
purpose, and began to rattle the handle vigorously, while he observed,
in his low, earnest voice, "You can't trust the workmen nowadays. A
brand-new lock, and it won't act at all. Stuck fast. See? See?"

As soon as they found themselves alone in their office across the yard:
"You praised that fellow up to Sigg. What is it you see in him?" asked
the nephew, with faint contempt.

"I admit he has nothing of your fancy skipper about him, if that's what
you mean," said the elder man, curtly. "Is the foreman of the joiners
on the Nan-Shan outside? . . . Come in, Bates. How is it that you let
Tait's people put us off with a defective lock on the cabin door? The
Captain could see directly he set eye on it. Have it replaced at once.
The little straws, Bates . . . the little straws. . . ."

The lock was replaced accordingly, and a few days afterwards the
Nan-Shan steamed out to the East, without MacWhirr having offered any
further remark as to her fittings