"What's your weight, Sneyd?"
"Well, doctor," replied the A.P., conscious now that he had gone too far, "just nine stone."
"Pooh! that's nothing. I can put up 200 lbs." And before Sneyd knew what was up, the surgeon had seized him by the collar of his upper garments and stood erect holding the little man straight over the sea.
"For God's sake let me down. Lower me. Lower me. I apologise!"
"Do you see the blue shark that has been following our ship for days?"' cried McTavish.
"I see the blue devil. Do lower me, for mercy's sake."
Next moment the doctor stood him on the deck.
He did apologise now, and all was forgiven.
"Lower me," he had shouted while suspended over the sea, and everyone admitted that on the whole he had been lowered considerably. Yet Sneyd when not in the pet was really one of the best little men in the ship.
But about this night on shore? Well, in due course Kep came on the stage, most takingly dressed in the uniform of a middy of the Merchant Service.