le, so
negative, now he himself was out on his own, to decide for himself, to
be master of his own fate.

"Are you married, Captain?" he asked, in a brief pause, with a flash of
intuition. Captain Rannie dropped the match he was holding, changed his
legs and began moving his neck violently in his collar while he
swallowed. Several times he opened his mouth to speak and nothing
happened. He looked hard at Mr. Spokesly's boots.

"I make it a rule," he said at length, "and I expect all my officers to
bear it in mind, to have no dealings in personalities. I ask no
questions about a man's private life and I expect none. I hope this is
understood from the first. There's one thing I simply will not tolerate
and that is prying into my private affairs."

"Well, hang it, I only asked a perfectly natural question. No offence,
Captain."

"Precisely. None offered, none taken. It's the principle I insist on."

"I suppose you've been out here some little time," ventured Mr.
Spokesly.

"That is a matter that concerns me and nobody else," said Captain
Rannie. "That's one thing I find very much in vogue nowadays. Ceaseless
curiosity about irrelevant matters. Do I ask you how long you've been
out here? I certainly do not. I consider it's nothing to do with me. And
yet I am considered unreasonable simply because I demand common decent
respect for my own private affairs."

"The Captain he no like to talk about his affairs," said Mr.
Dainopoulos, who was listening. "Don't you worry. You'll find him all
right, Mister. To-morrow you start on the _Kalkis_. That all right,
Captain?"

Captain Rannie seemed under the stress of some terrific emotion. He
swallowed, his foot tapped the floor, the slave-bangle shot up out of
sight; and he regarded a point about three feet up the wall with a
malignant glare.

"I'm sure I'd never dream of interfering in such a matter," he said.
"What you do I must stand by. You make the bed, I have to lie on it.
That's what a shipmaster's for. He's a doormat, for everybody to wipe
their feet on. No matter what happens, he has to take the blame. _I've_
no objection in the world. I expect nothing, and that's all I get."

Mr. Dainopoulos evidently knew his captain, for he said: "All right.
That's fixed. Now, when we've had something to eat we'll go see the
Transport Officer. He's the man."

"I hope you don't want _me_ to go with you," said Captain Rannie,
looking down at the floor as though he saw the bottom