'I can talk straight, can't I, cap?' he hiccupped blandly. 'I'm thinkin' I'll lie down in the cabin.'
And when the 'old man' went below he found Geordie dossing in his own sacred bunk. The poor old chap went and sat in the cabin and put his head in his hands. 'This is a most horrid experience,' he said mournfully. 'I don't like howners on board. I don't like 'em a bit!'
But it was not only the afterguard who suffered. Geordie shifted his dunnage aft at last, and though he left the skipper's berth when he was sober, he made himself very comfortable in the steward's. And he loafed about all day on deck with his pipe in his mouth. He began to look at the men with alien eyes.
'I tell you they're loafin', said he to Ware. 'Don't I know 'em. They watches you like cats, and when your eyes are off 'em they do nothin'. I'm payin' 'em to work and I'm payin' you to make 'em. There's a leak somewhere.'
And he addressed the crowd from the poop.
'You're a lazy lot,' he said; 'that's wot you are. For two pins I'd cut the galley-fire and your afternoon watch below!'
And next day he raised their wages. A week later he cut them down again. The skipper had a hard job to keep track of what the ship owed them.
'I wish we was home,' groaned old Smith. 'Oh, he'll be a hell of an owner.'
'I'll murder him,' said Brose.
'Wot did I tell you, chaps, about the 'orrid effec's of sudden richness in a man?' asked the old fo'c'sle man for'ard. 'Geordie Potts was a good sort, but Mr. George Potts, Esquire, is an 'oly terror. 'E raises hus hup an' cuts hus down like grass.'