"'Adn't we better wait till 'e comes out to dinner?" urged Butterworth, "and then our speakin' will come natural, or more natural than now."
Sloggett looked up at this.
"Oh, if you are such a coward as to want an excuse I can give you one," he said. "I quite forgot till this very moment that I brought a letter from the office for this old scoundrel of a Jordan. So you can take it in, Butterworth."
But the junior partner did not like being called a coward after his encounter with the second mate, and he was very cross with Sloggett.
"Coward yourself," he said angrily. "Why don't you take it? I'll bet you 'aven't the pluck to call that Cade a clumsy 'ound."
"No more 'ave you, now," said Sloggett; "and if you like I'll take on your job with Jordan, and give 'im the letter myself."
"All right, you can," said Butterworth; "and I'll take five to three in sovs. that you don't get an 'idin'."
That no one offered to lay these odds made Sloggett very uncomfortable, but as he had undertaken the job he went through with it, though he did it with a very pale face. He took the letter from his pocket, without knowing that by so doing he was rendering their trip to Capetown a dead certainty, and walked to the skipper's cabin. He paused for a moment before he knocked, and the junior partner of the unhappy firm laughed. That laugh gave Sloggett the necessary stimulus to action, and he tapped very mildly at Jordan's cabin.
"Come in," roared the skipper, in a voice like a distant thunderstorm, and Sloggett did as he was bid, and did it as mildly as he had knocked.
"Oh, captain, I forgot to tell you that I brought you a letter from the office which came just as I was leavin' it."