, or having been heard to utter a
single word hinting at pride in his ship, gratitude for his appointment,
or satisfaction at his prospects.

With a temperament neither loquacious nor taciturn he found very little
occasion to talk. There were matters of duty, of course--directions,
orders, and so on; but the past being to his mind done with, and the
future not there yet, the more general actualities of the day required
no comment--because facts can speak for themselves with overwhelming
precision.

Old Mr. Sigg liked a man of few words, and one that "you could be sure
would not try to improve upon his instructions." MacWhirr satisfying
these requirements, was continued in command of the Nan-Shan, and
applied himself to the careful navigation of his ship in the China seas.
She had come out on a British register, but after some time Messrs. Sigg
judged it expedient to transfer her to the Siamese flag.

At the news of the contemplated transfer Jukes grew restless, as if
under a sense of personal affront. He went about grumbling to himself,
and uttering short scornful laughs. "Fancy having a ridiculous
Noah's Ark elephant in the ensign of one's ship," he said once at the
engine-room door. "Dash me if I can stand it: I'll throw up the billet.
Don't it make you sick, Mr. Rout?" The chief engineer only cleared his
throat with the air of a man who knows the value of a good billet.

The first morning the new flag floated over the stern of the Nan-Shan
Jukes stood looking at it bitterly from the bridge. He struggled with
his feelings for a while, and then remarked, "Queer flag for a man to
sail under, sir."

"What's the matter with the flag?" inquired Captain MacWhirr. "Seems all
right to me." And he walked across to the end of the bridge to have a
good look.

"Well, it looks queer to me," burst out Jukes, greatly exasperated, and
flung off the bridge.

Captain MacWhirr was amazed at these manners. After a while he stepped
quietly into the chart-room, and opened his International Signal
Code-book at the plate where the flags of all the nations are correctly
figured in gaudy rows. He ran his finger over them, and when he came to
Siam he contemplated with great attention the red field and the white
elephant. Nothing could be more simple; but to make sure he brought the
book out on the bridge for the purpose of comparing the coloured drawing
with the real thing at the flagstaff astern. When next Jukes, who was
carrying on t