“I wish I hadn’t spoken as I did last night,” I said to myself later on; and I was going over the whole scene in the cabin, and thinking of what a noodle I must have looked, when I heard my name uttered in the captain’s short, sharp voice.
I turned and saluted, to find that Mr Reardon had gone forward.
“I only want to repeat my caution to you, Mr Herrick,” said the captain. “You will not say a word to any one about your visit to me last night.”
“No, sir,” I said.
“You have not spoken to your messmates?”
“No, sir; not a word.”
“But they asked you why I summoned you to my cabin?”
“Yes, sir; but they think it was to snub—reprove me, sir, for making so much of the Chinaman.”
“Oh, I see. But snub would have done, Mr Herrick. Reprove sounds pedantic. That will do, but bear in mind my wishes.”
“Oh, there you are, Mr Herrick,” said the first lieutenant, a few minutes later. “I want you. Find that Chinaman and the ship’s tailor, and bring them both to my cabin.”