d a half commission."

"Belay, there, belay!" the sailor shouted. His coppery face was a shade
darker than usual, and his bilious eyes had a venomous gleam in them.
"Don't you beat me down, curse you!" he hissed, advancing to the table
and leaning his hands upon it while he pushed his angry face forward
until it was within a foot of that of the merchant. "Don't you try that
game on, mate, for I am a free-born British seaman, and I am under the
thumb of no man."

"You're drunk," said the senior partner. "Sit down!"

"You'd reduce my screw, would ye?" roared Captain Hamilton Miggs,
working himself into a fury. "Me that has worked for ye, and slaved for
ye, and risked my life for ye. You try it on, guv'nor; just you try it
on! Suppose I let out that little story o' the painting out o' the
marks--where would the firm of Girdlestone be then! I guess you'd
rather double my wage than have that yarn goin' about."

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? You don't know what I mean, do you? Of course not.
It wasn't you as set us on to go at night and paint out the Government
Plimsoll marks and then paint 'em in again higher up, so as to be able
to overload. That wasn't you, was it?"

"Do you mean to assert that it was?"

"In course I do," thundered the angry seaman.

The senior partner struck the gong which stood upon the table.
"Gilray," he said quietly, "go out and bring in a policeman."

Captain Hamilton Miggs seemed to be somewhat startled by this sudden
move of his antagonist. "Steady your helm, governor," he said.
"What are ye up to now?"

"I'm going to give you in charge."

"What for?"

"For intimidation and using threatening language, and endeavouring to
extort money under false pretences."

"There's no witnesses," the sailor said in a half-cringing, half-defiant
manner.

"Oh yes, there are," Ezra Girdlestone remarked, coming into the room.
He had been standing between the two doors which led to the
counting-house, and had overheard the latter portion of the
conversation. "Don't let me interrupt you. You were saying that you
would blacken my father's character unless he increased your salary."

"I didn't mean no harm," said Captain Hamilton Miggs, glancing nervously
from the one to the other. He had been fairly well known to the law in
his younger days, and had no desire to renew the acquaintance.

"Who painted out those Plimsoll marks?" asked the merchant.

"It was me."

"Did any one s