Now it occurred to the commander that he might give the surgeon a knock-down over this. So he called the assistant paymaster, and ordered him to write what is called "a memo.", which is really a tyrannical edict, which all the officers, however, must sign.
Flint dictated the memo., and when presented to him for inspection, it read as follows:—
MEMO.
It is my directions that the officers of this ship shall go on shore dressed as gentlemen.
This would have been insult enough to poor Grant, but the skipper added to it greatly, for between the words as and gentlemen he wrote the word English, making the memo, read as English gentlemen.
The doctor was writing in his cabin, between which and the commander's saloon there was only a single bulkhead. He was the last officer to be asked to sign the memo.
When he read it, then indeed his "dander riz".
His fury was fearful to behold, and the commander could hear all that was said.
Grant sprang to his feet.
"This from Flint!" he roared; "and he dares ask me to sign it! Is not a Scotch gentleman as good as an English gentleman any day? See here, Maxwell, I tear it in pieces, and fling them on the deck. Take it back to him thus if you choose, but he shall not insult my native land!"