d to
overawe such wild carouse, and in good earnest to govern the night;
while in a deep blue darkness, among the folds of white cloud, stars
shone with new clearness. Under this celestial content, the _Bonadventure_
moved over a gleaming sea.

Mead, on his watch, was troubled. He sought in his mind a life better
paid and more exciting. Every few moments, he would add some detail aloud
to a scheme for piracy in these waters, which he thought might be made
a profitable occupation. He pictured a coaster, duly registered, running
with ordinary cargo to and fro, but on the lines of a "Q" boat, a sort
of marine wolf in sheep's clothing, armed with torpedo tubes. In all
respects, himself being already chosen as captain, its crew should form
a co-operative society. The pirate should carry a wireless installation
of the noisiest sort. In brief, the whole scheme appealed to him so
warmly that he was ready, apart from details to be arranged, especially
a financier, to put it into practice. Me he would accept as purser,
not so much because I showed any promise as a book-keeper, as that I had
been in an infantry battalion in the Line.

The ship was slowing down, and the chief was worried. One morning he
offered me employment, "cleaning the tubes. You come round to my place." I
went round at about nine, when the ship's engines were stopped, and found
that he had as ever been amusing himself in his quiet way. He himself,
with the firemen, was now ready to act as the ship's chimney-sweeps.
After a full morning's work, masked in sweat and soot, they came up on
deck again from the job. I did not regret my earlier "disappointment."
Relieved of the clogging soot, the _Bonadventure_ ran with fresh speed,
against a tough head wind. For the first time for some days, one heard
the harsh drumming of the excess of steam escaping through its valve.
The wind drove the water, hereabouts of a jade green colour, into long
waves and their fine manes of spray, upon which the sun made many a
small and fleeting rainbow. With this head wind piping, and the cargo,
it seemed, having shifted lately, the ship had an uncomfortable list to
port and swayed as she went. "Here, you," cried Meacock to me, "your
extra weight on the port side's doing this." "Yes, it's perfectly plain he
is the Jonah of the voyage."

A dozen big black birds appeared as travelling companions, white-breasted
and easy-going. At a closer view, I found that they were not properly
black