my report is a thoroughly
favorable one, you are not likely to be again employed. I was told that
there was nothing special against you, but that in no case since you
passed have you been warmly spoken of. It has been said that you know
your duty well; but they had privately learned that you were fond of
liquor; and although no charge of absolute drunkenness had been brought
against you, it was considered that you would not make a desirable
officer in a higher rank. Now your future depends upon yourself; if you
have the resolution to give up the habit, you may yet retrieve yourself.
If I find that you do so, I shall certainly take the opportunity of
giving you a chance to distinguish yourself, and shall strongly urge
your claim to promotion. If I am not able to do this, you must make up
your mind to be permanently put upon the shelf."

The admonition had not been in vain, and since joining the Serpent
Morrison had made a successful effort to break himself of the habit. He
had very seldom gone ashore, and when he did so, never went alone, and
always returned at an early hour, and without having taken more than he
would have done in the ordinary way on board. He had not, however, given
up his habit of grumbling, and his messmates were so accustomed to his
taking a somber view of everything that his prognostication as to the
nature of their work up the river had but little effect upon them.

"What do you think, Sandy?" Harry Parkhurst asked the Scotch assistant
surgeon.

"I know nothing about it, except what I have read. They say that the
country is healthy; but it stands to reason that this cannot be so
while you have got rivers with swamps and jungles and such heat as this.
However, we have a good supply of quinine on board, and with that and
our allowance of spirits, I hope that we shan't, as Morrison says, have
half the ship's company down with the fever. It is all in our favor that
we have only just come out, for they say that newcomers can resist
the effects of these tropical rivers much better than those whose
constitution has been weakened by a residence in the country. As to the
sport, I have no desire to kill any animal that does not meddle with me.
My business is all the other way, and if any of you get mauled, I will
do my best to help the doctor to pull you through; but I am very well
on board the ship, and have no desire to go tramping about among the
swamps, whether it be to hunt animals or fight Malays."