icket an' qualify for the
Cunard."

"Thoroughly reliable sort of chap, eh?"

"The best."

It was odd how these men left unsaid the really vital things. Again it
was Coke who tried to fill in some part of the blank space.

"Just the right kind of second for the _Andromeda's_ last cruise," he
muttered. "Smart as a new pin. You could trust 'im on the bridge of a
battleship. Now, Watts is a good man, but a tot of rum makes 'im fair
daft."

"Ah!" purred Verity, "you must keep a tight 'and on Watts. I like an
appetizer meself w'en I'm off dooty, so to speak, but it's no joke to
'ave a boozer in charge of a fine ship an' vallyble freight. Of
course, you're responsible as master, but you can't be on deck mornin',
noon, an' night. Choke Watts off the drink, an' you'll 'ave no
trouble. So that's settled. My, but you're fair meltin'--wot is it
they say--losin' adipose tisher. Well, come along. Let's lubricate."

* * * * * *

The _Andromeda_ sailed on the Tuesday afternoon's tide. She would drop
the pilot off Holyhead, and, with fair weather, such as cheered her
departure from the Mersey, daybreak on Thursday would find her pounding
through the cross seas where St. George's Channel merges into the wide
Atlantic. If she followed the beaten track on her long run to the
River Plate--as sailors will persist in miscalling that wondrous Rio de
la Plata--she might be signaled from Madeira or the Cape Verde Islands.
But shipmasters often prefer to set a course clear of the land till
they pick up the coast of South America. If she were not spoken by
some passing steamer, there was every possibility that the sturdy old
vessel would not be heard of again before reaching her destination.

* * * * * *

But David Verity heard of her much sooner, and no thunderbolt that ever
rent the heavens could have startled him more than the manner of that
hearing.

Resolving to clinch matters with regard to Iris and her elderly suitor,
he invited "Owd Dickey" to supper on Sunday evening. The girl endured
the man's presence with a placid dignity that amazed her uncle. On the
plea of a headache, she retired at an early hour, leaving Bulmer to
gloat over his prospective happiness, and primed to the point of
dementia.

He was quite willing to accompany Verity to the bank next morning; a
pleasant-spoken manager sighed his relief when the visitors were gone,
and he was fre