unparalleled? A captain has an awful lot of power, and I gather from 'is be'aviour that 'e knows it. In the office we gave 'im all proper orders for Capetown, and said nothin' about Gibraltar, because you hadn't been fool enough to suggest it then. If 'e won't go there we can't make 'im, so if a little kindness and a bottle of champagne will do it it is very cheap at the price."
"I would like to murder 'im," said Butterworth, but the champagne was sent over to the skipper's table all the same. It was returned quite courteously, or, at any rate, without any demonstration of hostility, and the partners knew then that war had been declared, and that peace could be obtained at no price, do what they would. They put it all down to the letter that Sloggett had given him, and they attacked Sloggett, who in revenge drank far more wine than he could stand, and went first for one of them and then for another, and finally got up enough steam to swear at the captain. In one minute and fifteen seconds by any good chronometer Mr. Sloggett was in irons, and in a spare berth without anything to furnish it. Captain Jordan was himself again, and not
