id the admiral,
"an-error-the-most-serious-and-not-easily-rectifiable."

"On your part," continued Dom Corria. "The vessel you name is the
property of my friend and colleague Dom Alfonso Pondillo, of Maceio.
He purchased and paid for her on September 1st. Here is the receipt of
the former owners, given to the Deutsche Bank in Paris, and handed to
Senhor Pondillo's agents. You will observe the date of the
transaction."

The admiral read. He read again.

"Ach Gott!" he cried angrily. "There are some
never-to-be-depended-upon fools in the world, and especially in
Hamburg."

"Everywhere," agreed Dom Corria blandly. Carmela's memory was not
quite of the hereditary order. She had forgotten, for three whole
days, that the letter containing the receipt was in her pocket.

* * * * * *

When Coke was pronounced fit for comfortable travel, David Verity and
Dickey Bulmer conveyed him home. They took with them drafts on a
London bank for amounts that satisfied every sort of claim for the
sinking of the _Andromeda_. Judged by the compensation given to the
vessel's survivors, there could be no doubt that the dependants of the
men who lost their lives would be well provided for. Even Watts vowed
that the President had behaved reel 'andsome, and, as a token of
regeneration, swore that never another drop o' sperrits would cross his
lips. Wines and beers, of course, were light refreshments of a
different order. Schmidt, too, sublimely heedless of the diplomatic
storm he had caused, seemed to be contented. He taught Watts "_Es gibt
nur eine Kaiser Stadt_," and Watts taught him the famous chanty of the
_Alice_ brig and her marooned crew. But the latter effusion was
rehearsed far from Coke's deck-chair, because the captain of the mail
steamer said that although he liked Coke personally, some of the lady
passengers might complain.

At odd moments David and Dickey Bulmer discussed the partnership. The
young people would be home in two months, and then Philip was to come
into the business.

"We're growing old, David," said Dickey. "I've got plenty of money,
an' you'll 'ave a tidy bit now, but there's one thing neether of us can
buy, and that's youth."

"I don't want to be young again," said David, "but I'd like to go back
just a year or so--no more.

"Why?"

"Well, there's bin times w'en--w'en I'd 'ave acted different. Wot do
you say, Jimmie?"

Coke, thus appealed to, glowered at