aid Holdock.

"'I'm speakin' for myself,' I said. 'Bannister has bairns. 'An' then
I lost my temper. 'Ye can run her into Hell an' out again if ye pay
pilotage,' I said, 'but ye run without me.'

"'That's insolence,' said young Steiner.

"'At your pleasure,' I said, turnin' to go.

"'Ye can consider yourself dismissed. We must preserve discipline among
our employees,' said old Holdock, an' he looked round to see that the
Board was with him. They knew nothin'--God forgie 'em--an' they nodded
me out o' the line after twenty years--after twenty years.

"I went out an' sat down by the hall porter to get my wits again. I'm
thinkin' I swore at the Board. Then auld McRimmon--o' McNaughten &
McRimmon--came, oot o' his office, that's on the same floor, an' looked
at me, proppin' up one eyelid wi' his forefinger. Ye know they call him
the Blind Deevil, forbye he onythin' but blind, an' no deevil in his
dealin's wi' me--McRimmon o' the Black Bird Line.

"'What's here, Mister McPhee?' said he.

"I was past prayin' for by then. 'A Chief Engineer sacked after twenty
years' service because he'll not risk the Breslau on the new timin', an'
be damned to ye, McRimmon,' I said.

"The auld man sucked in his lips an' whistled. 'AH,' said he, 'the new
timin'. I see!' He doddered into the Board-room I'd just left, an' the
Dandie-dog that is just his blind man's leader stayed wi' me. That was
providential. In a minute he was back again. 'Ye've cast your bread on
the watter, McPhee, an' be damned to you,' he says. 'Whaur's my dog? My
word, is he on your knee? There's more discernment in a dog than a Jew.
What garred ye curse your Board, McPhee? It's expensive.'

"'They'll pay more for the Breslau,' I said. 'Get off my knee, ye
smotherin' beast.'

"'Bearin's hot, eh?' said McRimmon. 'It's thirty year since a man daur
curse me to my face. Time was I'd ha' cast ye doon the stairway for
that.'

"'Forgie's all!' I said. He was wearin' to eighty, as I knew. 'I was
wrong, McRimmon; but when a man's shown the door for doin' his plain
duty he's not always ceevil.'

"'So I hear,' says McRimmon. 'Ha' ye ony objection to a tramp freighter?
It's only fifteen a month, but they say the Blind Deevil feeds a man
better than others. She's my Kite. Come ben. Ye can thank Dandie, here.
I'm no used to thanks. An' noo,' says he, 'what possessed ye to throw up
your berth wi' Holdock?'

"'The new timin',' said I. 'The Breslau will not stand it.'

"'H