is not up-to-date; that she has the smallest
catches of any Grimsby trawler. We have told him also that you have been
keeping down expenses by half-starving your men, and that you are the
vilest little bully that ever held a captain's certificate.'

'And they also told me,' Mr. Page joined in, 'that you confessed to one
of your men that you were about to sell the _Sparrow-hawk_ for half as
much again as she was worth. Let me assure you that you will do nothing
of the kind. I would not give half the sum which you ask for her. From
the first I suspected that you were a swindler, and it was to obtain
proof of it that my son shipped with you as a cook. Have you anything
that you wish to say in your defence, or will you go at once?'

Skipper Drummond picked up his hat and gloves, and without uttering a
word walked out of the room. He was white with rage, but he dared not
express his anger in words such as he would have used on the
_Sparrow-hawk_, for Charlie accompanied him to the hall door, and stood
in the porch watching him until he had passed into the main road.

'We have seen the last of him, I think,' said Charlie, when the captain
was out of sight; 'and I hope that I never meet another man like him.'

On the following evening the Pages had a much more welcome visitor in
Lieutenant Williams, who availed himself of Charlie's earnest invitation
to come and see him and Ping Wang before they started for China. In
private life he was just as cheery, amusing, and good-tempered as on
board ship. He told many interesting stories of his work in
coper-catching and arrests for illegal fishing. He quite envied Fred,
Charlie, and Ping Wang their trip to China.

'Perhaps you will be sent to South Africa,' Charlie remarked. 'That
would be much better than going with us.'

'Certainly it would,' Williams declared. 'Active service is the best
thing that a man in the navy can desire, but I am afraid that there is
no chance of my getting to South Africa. At any rate, I shall go on
hoping for foreign service of some sort.'

'If he has an opportunity,' Fred declared, after Lieutenant Williams had
departed, 'he will make the most of it, I am sure. He is just the kind
of man to do something big, and then laugh and pretend that it was a
very easy thing to do. I wish that he was coming with us. However, it's
no good wishing. I'm going to have a good long sleep for my last night
in the old home. Good night, all.'

Charlie and Ping Wang