"Starboard," muttered the Serang to the helmsman; and the Sofala began
to swing round the bend into the second reach.

"Ough!" Massy shuddered. "You make my blood run cold. What made you come
here? What made you come aboard that evening all of a sudden, with your
high talk and your money--tempting me? I always wondered what was your
motive? You fastened yourself on me to have easy times and grow fat on
my life blood, I tell you. Was that it? I believe you are the greatest
miser in the world, or else why . . ."

"No. I am only poor," interrupted Captain Whalley, stonily.

"Steady," murmured the Serang. Massy turned away with his chin on his
shoulder.

"I don't believe it," he said in his dogmatic tone. Captain Whalley
made no movement. "There you sit like a gorged vulture--exactly like a
vulture."

He embraced the middle of the reach and both the banks in one blank
unseeing circular glance, and left the bridge slowly.

IX

On turning to descend Massy perceived the head of Sterne the mate
loitering, with his sly confident smile, his red mustaches and blinking
eyes, at the foot of the ladder.

Sterne had been a junior in one of the larger shipping concerns before
joining the Sofala. He had thrown up his berth, he said, "on general
principles." The promotion in the employ was very slow, he complained,
and he thought it was time for him to try and get on a bit in the world.
It seemed as though nobody would ever die or leave the firm; they all
stuck fast in their berths till they got mildewed; he was tired of
waiting; and he feared that when a vacancy did occur the best servants
were by no means sure of being treated fairly. Besides, the captain he
had to serve under--Captain Provost--was an unaccountable sort of man,
and, he fancied, had taken a dislike to him for some reason or other.
For doing rather more than his bare duty as likely as not. When he
had done anything wrong he could take a talking to, like a man; but
he expected to be treated like a man too, and not to be addressed
invariably as though he were a dog. He had asked Captain Provost plump
and plain to tell him where he was at fault, and Captain Provost, in a
most scornful way, had told him that he was a perfect officer, and that
if he disliked the way he was being spoken to there was the gangway--he
could take himself off ashore at once. But everybody knew what sort of
man Captain Provost was. It was no use appealing to the office. Captain
Provost