"Don't you understand, Butterworth," said the senior partner, when Butterworth objected, "that we are in a persition that is, I may say, unparalleled? A captain has an awful lot of power, and I gather from 'is be'aviour that 'e knows it. In the office we gave 'im all proper orders for Capetown, and said nothin' about Gibraltar, because you hadn't been fool enough to suggest it then. If 'e won't go there we can't make 'im, so if a little kindness and a bottle of champagne will do it it is very cheap at the price."
"I would like to murder 'im," said Butterworth, but the champagne was sent over to the skipper's table all the same. It was returned quite courteously, or, at anyrate, without any demonstration of hostility, and the partners knew then that war had been declared, and that peace could be obtained at no price, do what they would. They put it all down to the letter that Sloggett had given him, and they attacked Sloggett, who in revenge drank far more wine than he could stand, and went first for one of them and then for another, and finally got up enough steam to swear at the captain. In one minute and fifteen seconds by any good chronometer Mr. Sloggett was in irons, and in a spare berth without anything to furnish it. Captain Jordan was himself again, and not the kind of man to put up with anything from anybody.
When Sloggett was quiet and subdued, the skipper told them in a few brief but well-chosen words what he and his officers and the whole ship's company thought of them. He told them his opinion of their charity, and of the wages they paid, and of the grub they put on board their vessel. He went on to state in very vivid language what was said of them all the world over, and then paused for a reply, which they did not give him. He asked them what they thought of themselves, and whatever they thought upon that subject they did not venture to state it. He asked Thripp if he would like to say anything, and Thripp did make a few remarks about things the captain had omitted. Then Jordan asked them if they would like to hear Mr. Cade on the subject, for if so Mr. Thripp could relieve the second officer for a few minutes. They expressed no anxiety to hear any more counsel for the prosecution, and then Gruddle made a heart-rending appeal for mercy.
"Oh, take us into Gibraltar, captain, and we will forgive you all, and even raise your pay to what you think is the proper figure. Oh, don't take us to Capetown, for there isn't food enough, and I shall die of indigestion."
"There is plenty of food," said Jordan. "Oh, there is heaps of grub such as Mr. Shody sent on board himself, and as a lesson I'm goin' to take you to South Africa, and I hope to the Lord that you will survive it."
Shody shivered; he knew what bad pork was like. Gruddle, as a Jew, was no judge of it. But the beef was even worse than the pork, and the men for'ard were almost in mutiny about it already.
"But food like that is only fit for men who are doin' hard work," said the unlucky Shody. The skipper's eyes flashed and then twinkled.
"Is that so?" he said. "If it is so, there seems to be a remedy."
What the remedy was he declined to state, and the firm declined to believe that it could be the one that occurred to them all with dreadful vividness. Oh no, it could not be that! Captain Jordan left them thinking, and retired into privacy for the remainder of the night. The trouble of wondering what was to happen to them came to an end in the morning, when by some strange chance, if it was a chance, the deck hands came as a deputation to the captain and laid a complaint against the grub. Jordan requested the presence on deck of the partners, and they knew better than to refuse.
"What you have to say about the food will be better said before the owners, my men," said the skipper. "As you know, they happen to be on board."