“Sir,” said the haughty next in command, “the discipline must be maintained!”
“Well, since I think of it, that is so,” admitted Hier Ruhet. “Get along, Nicht!”
Whereupon Nicht Wahr haughtily commanded Weiss Nicht in addition, that a gun be fired as politely as possible across the bows of the little craft, by the way of invitation for her to heave to—since the admiral desired her—
“In case she should be moving,” he said, with a great bow to the admiral.
“Politely, hah?” cried Ruhet. “I think that is a mistake. It is always better to skeer ’em. Hang politeness in a cannon!”
“It is not for that purpose, sir,” answered that wise mate, “that I do it—to be polite. But in order that we commit no act of piracy on the high seas.”
Then Wahr struck an attitude in which his back was very concave and his feet far apart. For he was a sea lawyer, he said.
III
THE SOUP-SPRING
“Thunder and blazes!” cried Ruhet, looking about, “who will know it? There is not a soul in sight.”
“The law of nations first, sir. Second, our conscience. Both are everywhere.”