Now, if a real flogging[[1]] or "flaying match" had to be played, and a man—guilty of some great crime—was stripped to the waist and tied to the rigging to receive four dozen with the cat, not only the doctor, in cocked hat and lashed to his sword, but all the officers and crew as well would have to be piped up to witness this fearful punishment. But it was no part of the surgeon's duty to attend a boy's birching. That indeed would have been infra dig. So, on this occasion the surgeon simply gave Flint a haughty stare, then continued his conversation.
[[1]] Flogging is now done away with in our Navy.
"Why, this is insubordination, sir! I've a good mind to put you under arrest."
Then, as the bo's'n's mate expressed it, "the doctor's dander riz". But he kept his temper.
"Captain Flint," he said, "you can put me under arrest if you please, but I shall not lower the dignity of a profession which is as honourable as yours by attending a boy's rope's-ending."
The commander stamped and paused.
"I'll—I'll—" he began.
"Now, now, now," cried the surgeon, "you'll have a fit! I warn you, sir. You're short-necked, sir, and excitable, and if—"
He got no further.
"Confound you, sir, I'll pay you out for this!"