ll with
marked satisfaction and pleasure.

"The guv'nor wants you, Mr. Green," said Sidcup, who had not joined in
the congratulations and admiration of the rest.

"All right," said Derrick. "Be with him in a moment."

He went in search of Jackman, and found him, with a bottle of whisky,
just outside the men's quarters. He looked up and snarled as Derrick
approached him. Derrick took the bottle from him, and then looked down
at him with an air of doubt and uncertainty.

"I'm trying to make up my mind whether I should give you your discharge
or a good hiding. I don't like sacking a man in a strange land, and
you're not in a condition for a fair fight. What do you think I ought to
do?"

Jackman staggered to his feet and glared at him.

"You've hit me once before, Mr. Green," he said. "Hit me again--just lay
your hand on me, and it'll be the last man you ever bash. You're an
upstart, that's what you are. You think, because you can come over that
old fool, that you're going to lord it over everybody. You can play that
sort of game with the women, but you can't with me. I'm engaged for this
trip, and you can't sack me because I made a slip of it in the ring just
now. I know the law, Mr. Green. You think I'm drunk. I'm sober enough to
best you, anyhow."

Thinking to take Derrick unawares, the foolish man aimed a blow at him;
but Derrick caught the arm, and almost gently forced Jackman into his
seat again.

"If you hadn't gone for me I'd have sacked you; but I see there's some
good left in you, anyhow. Pull yourself together, man, and don't be an
idiot. Cut this stuff"--he tapped the bottle--"and do your job properly.
I'll talk to you in the morning. No, I won't; but if I find you playing
the giddy goat again, I'll give you your choice of a hiding or a
discharge."

As Derrick hurried off to the manager's office he asked himself why he
had been so merciful, for the man had deserved all with which Derrick
had threatened him. But Derrick knew, for as he had stood looking down
at the man, he had remembered a certain young man who had been saved
from playing the fool by a girl; and the remembrance would never leave
him, would always make him merciful towards the folly of other men.

Mr. Bloxford was not wearing his fur coat, but he nodded to the garment,
where it hung on a chair behind him.

"Help me on with it, will you? Took it off--thought there was going to
be a row," he said, with the air of a man who is quite abl