“I shall report him, of course, but, none the less, I dislike to do it. It almost makes me feel like the spy he said I was.”
“Don’t feel that way. What you are doing you are doing for the safety of the ship.”
Henry surrendered the watch to Belford and went straight to the captain’s cabin. “Come in,” said the captain, when Henry knocked.
“Good-morning, Captain Hardwick,” said Henry, as he entered the cabin. “I have come to you on a disagreeable business. I have to report young Black for carelessness about his work.”
The captain looked at Henry keenly. “Have you boys been quarreling?” he asked.
“I was afraid you’d think that was about the size of it,” responded Henry, “and I was very reluctant to bother you with the matter at all. But I thought I really owed it to you, Captain Hardwick. I could not sleep after the excitement last night, and I dressed and went to the wireless room. Black was on duty, and I found him fast asleep.”
The captain’s face grew dark as a thundercloud. “Asleep at the wireless key!” he said. “It was indeed your duty to report the matter to me. I’ll break that fellow quick. We’ll have him before a court-martial and clap him in the brig, and he’ll be dishonorably discharged the minute we reach shore.”
“Please don’t do that, Captain Hardwick. I should hate to think I had made a fellow lose his job. Maybe he’ll do better in future. Won’t you let him off with a reprimand or some slight punishment?”
The captain looked at Henry searchingly. “I can’t exactly understand you,” he said. “You report a man for wrong-doing and then don’t want him punished. Can you explain that?”
“Why, sir, he ought to be reported. That’s plain enough. Maybe he ought to be punished, too. But if he is punished, it will look as though I was simply trying to get even with him. I wouldn’t want anybody, even Black, to think I was so small as that.”