The orderly knocked softly at the polished mahogany door frame.
"Ord'ly, sir," he announced.
And a minute later:
"Ordinary Seaman Strong, sir."
"Send him in," came the pleasant, mellow voice of the captain.
Ned subdued an inclination to take to his heels, and entered, looking as calm as he could.
"A moment, Strong," said the captain in a pleasant voice. "I'll be through here in a minute."
Ned stood stiffly at attention and gazed about him out of the corners of his eyes while his commander wrote busily, dipping his pen from time to time in a massive silver ink-stand. The commander's quarters, although on a fighting ship, were as luxuriously appointed as the library in any mansion ashore. The fittings were all dark mahogany, relieved, here and there, with maple-wood, on which the soft lights glowed and shone. As in the officers' cabins, there was no porthole, the armor at this part of the ship precluding any such device. Thick glass, let into the quarter deck above, however, admitted light.
"Ord'ly!"