The captain groaned aloud. 'You know what you said about my children?'

he broke out.

'By rote. In case you wish me to say it you again?' asked Herrick.

'Don't!' cried the captain, clapping his hands to his ears. 'Don't make

me kill a man I care for! Herrick, if you see me put glass to my lips

again till we're ashore, I give you leave to put bullet through me;

I beg you to do it! You're the only man aboard whose carcase is worth

losing; do you think I don't know that? do you think I ever went back on

you? I always knew you were in the right of it--drunk or sober, I knew

that. What do you want?--an oath? Man, you're clever enough to see that

this is sure-enough earnest.'

'Do you mean there shall be no more drinking?' asked Herrick, 'neither

by you nor Huish? that you won't go on stealing my profits and drinking

my champagne that I gave my honour for? and that you'll attend to your

duties, and stand watch and watch, and bear your proper share of the

ship's work, instead of leaving it all on the shoulders of a landsman,

and making yourself the butt and scoff of native seamen? Is that what

you mean? If it is, be so good as to say it categorically.'

'You put these things in a way hard for a gentleman to swallow,' said

the captain. 'You wouldn't have me say I was ashamed of myself? Trust me

this once; I'll do the square thing, and there's my hand on it.'

'Well, I'll try it once,' said Herrick. 'Fail me again...'

The Ebb-Tide