see you there, Captain."

Dan would have preferred to stay away from that dinner. The thought of
his practical connivance at the day's slaughter, so obviously suggested
by Mr. Howland, grated on him, and the implied command in the
invitation to the dinner bothered him too. The day was to be filled
with duties about ship, and he wanted the evening to himself, to sit in
his cabin with his pipe and his books and mull over these and other
things.

Of course he might have known what would follow the landing of the guns
from the _Tampico_. He did know, as a matter of fact, but orders are
orders, and duty is duty; and when you are employed by a man you accept
your salary and any other accruing benefits solely upon the
understanding that you shall serve his interests to the best of your
ability.

Yes, Dan could see that perfectly, and he could also see the bad taste
that lay in intimating dissatisfaction with his employer's methods
while wearing the uniform of Mr. Howland's company and receiving good
pay therefor. And anyway, Mr. Howland had not asked him to cut Blancan
warships in two and endanger the lives of the entire ship's company and
guests. No, that was on his own head, his own hot head.

In the days of the present voyage he had felt a strong tendency to look
beyond the bridge of the _Tampico_ into the future. Of course he liked
adventure, but of late he had begun to feel that perhaps he had had
enough of the strenuous life to last him the remainder of his years.
He certainly did not intend to grow gray on coastwise lines. Bluff,
gnarled old Harrison, his predecessor on this vessel, had served as a
striking object lesson. He could spin yarns of his adventures by the
hour, but at best no one would call him anything but an interesting old
character, a retired shell-back on half pay. Dan found no pleasure in
looking forward to anything of the sort.

Since he had gained a command in the famous Coastwise and West Indian
Shipping Company, he had begun to commend himself to persons who never
before had played a part in his life, principally a cousin of his
father's, a wealthy merchant of Boston, who had written him a long
letter, received just before the _Tampico_ sailed on her present
voyage, expressing a desire to meet him.

"It is not possible," the letter read, "you will want to follow the sea
all your life. There must be plenty of opportunities ashore for men of
your evident executive ability and initiati