if possible; but if not, then anything that I
can lay my hands on. But so far, I am sorry to say, I have met with
nothing but rebuffs. Nobody on the face of this earth appears to need a
man with my qualifications just now.'

"`Ha, ha!' chuckled the little man, rubbing his hands gleefully. `Just
as I thought when I first set eyes on you. Here, says I to myself, is a
seaman, sure enough--I could tell that at the first glance--a Navy man,
too, by the way he carries himself, and no longer in the Service by the
general--er--um--not on active duty at the moment, I mean to say,' he
ended, rather lamely, with an apologetic cough.

"I felt myself going red round the ears, Dick, and might have been
inclined to be angry had anyone else spoken thus. But there was
something about my little pirate that assured me he did not in the least
intend to be offensive, so I only laughed, rather ruefully. If my
`out-of-work' condition was so apparent as to be noted by even a common
seaman, it was no wonder, I told myself, that I so often came out of
private offices with the words, `Nothing to suit you, I'm afraid, Mr
Frobisher', ringing in my ears.

"`Well,' I said, `granted that I am an ex-naval officer looking for a
job, what bearing has that upon your business with me? For I suppose
you must have some idea that you and I can do business together, since
you started the conversation.'

"`What bearing?' he repeated. `Well, I'll just tell you. As it
happens, I'm looking at this moment for exactly such a man as you appear
to be. My name's Drake--Captain John Drake, of the tramp steamer
_Quernmore_, two thousand five hundred and sixty tons register, to be
exact--and, from what you've just said, I think I could make a pretty
good shot at your tally. Should I be very far wrong if I said that you
were ex-lieutenant Murray Frobisher?'

"`On the contrary,' I answered, `you would have hit the bull's-eye dead
in the centre.'

"`I was certain of it,' he smiled; `and again I say, more emphatically
than ever, that you're the very man I'm looking for. If you'll take
that chair and pull up to the fire, I'll take the other and we'll have a
bit of a palaver.'

"Having seated ourselves comfortably, Drake at once proceeded:--

"`I may tell you, Mr Frobisher, that for the past twenty years I have
been captain of this same steamer, trading between eastern ports all the
while; and as this is the first time I have been back to old England
duri