precious slip of blue paper in their hands.

"That day I wouldn't have called the Queen my cousin," declared our new
acquaintance enthusiastically.

At that time the Marine Board examinations took place at the Saint
Katherine's Dock House on Tower Hill, and he informed us that he had a
special affection for the view of that historic locality, with the
Gardens to the left, the front of the Mint to the right, the miserable
tumble-down little houses farther away, a cabstand, boot-blacks
squatting on the edge of the pavement and a pair of big policemen gazing
with an air of superiority at the doors of the Black Horse public-house
across the road. This was the part of the world, he said, his eyes
first took notice of, on the finest day of his life. He had emerged
from the main entrance of Saint Katherine's Dock House a full-fledged
second mate after the hottest time of his life with Captain R--, the
most dreaded of the three seamanship Examiners who at the time were
responsible for the merchant service officers qualifying in the Port of
London.

"We all who were preparing to pass," he said, "used to shake in our
shoes at the idea of going before him. He kept me for an hour and a
half in the torture chamber and behaved as though he hated me. He kept
his eyes shaded with one of his hands. Suddenly he let it drop saying,
`You will do!' Before I realised what he meant he was pushing the blue
slip across the table. I jumped up as if my chair had caught fire.

"`Thank you, sir,' says I, grabbing the paper.

"`Good morning, good luck to you,' he growls at me.

"The old doorkeeper fussed out of the cloak-room with my hat. They
always do. But he looked very hard at me before he ventured to ask in a
sort of timid whisper: `Got through all right, sir?' For all answer I
dropped a half-crown into his soft broad palm. `Well,' says he with a
sudden grin from ear to ear, `I never knew him keep any of you gentlemen
so long. He failed two second mates this morning before your turn came.
Less than twenty minutes each: that's about his usual time.'

"I found myself downstairs without being aware of the steps as if I had
floated down the staircase. The finest day in my life. The day you get
your first command is nothing to it. For one thing a man is not so
young then and for another with us, you know, there is nothing much more
to expect. Yes, the finest day of one's life, no doubt, but then it is
just a day and no more.