aboard the _Sparrow-hawk_.

'So your father is the man whom the skipper hopes to swindle!' Ping Wang
exclaimed, and went off into a fit of laughter.

'Stop that row!' the skipper shouted, coming aft. 'Can't you find any
work to do? I'll have no loafers aboard my boat. Here, you Chinee, you
get for'ard, and trim the lamps.'

Ping Wang rose to obey.

'Hurry up!' the skipper growled, and kicked him.

In a moment Charlie was on his feet. 'You wretched little bully!' he
said to the skipper. 'If you ill-treat that man again, I will knock you
down.'

'You dare to threaten me on my own ship!' the skipper shouted, white
with rage. 'I'm the skipper, and I'll let you know it. I'll clap you in
irons if you give me any of your back answers.'

'Why not try kicking me instead?'

'I'll give you in charge for mutiny when we get back to Grimsby.'

'I shouldn't be in a hurry to enter a police-court, if I were you.
Prosecutors are sometimes asked unpleasant questions.'

The chief engineer at that moment came up from the engine-room.

'Skipper, I want a word with you,' he said.

'Right you are,' the skipper replied, and walked over to him, well
pleased to bring his argument with Charlie to an end. Charlie was not
really a very formidable opponent for a grown man, but Skipper Drummond,
like many bullies, was a great coward.

Charles, left alone, resumed his seat on the ropes and, forgetting for a
time the skipper's existence, spent a pleasant half-hour in thinking
over the story which Ping Wang had related to him.

About three hours after the quarrel, the _Sparrow-hawk_ arrived at the
'Dogger,' a submarine bank, the nearest point of which is about sixty
miles from England. It is one hundred and seventy miles long and seventy
miles broad.

'We shall shoot in an hour's time,' the mate said to Charlie, 'and you
must give us a hand.'

'Whom are you going to shoot?' Charlie inquired, jokingly.

'I know whom you would like to shoot--the skipper. He has taken a
dislike to you, and tells me that you are the biggest scoundrel he ever
had aboard.'

The mate smiled as he spoke, and added, after a few moments' interval:
'The skipper is a queer customer, and, if you take my advice, you will
do all you can to please him. Anyhow, he says that you are to give a
hand when we shoot and when we haul the trawl.'

'I am to be fisherman as well as cook. Is he going to pay me double
wages?'

'You had better ask him. Got a mug of tea handy