"Yes, Count, you do look familiar to me. But where have we met?"
He sat there, as the saying goes, with both feet in the trough.
"Don't you know me from the ship?"
"Man, man, are you Phelax?"
"Captain, Captain," warned the shipowner.
"Oh, excuse me, excuse me," stammered the captain.
"Well, I am Phelax," I laughed. "I went aboard your ship to see how it felt to be a sailor again."
"Well, well," stuttered the captain, "and now it is my turn to treat."
I told him my story, how I had been born a count, had become a sailor and then an officer of sailing ships, and now was an officer of the Imperial Service. He had tears in his eye.
"And my mate—think of it—my mate said you were too independent."