"The swine," said old Jordan to himself, "oh, the swine that they are! I wish I could get even with them. If I could do that I could die happy. They are charitable, are they? Curse their charity! Ah, if I hadn't been so unlucky in my last employ."
But that was it. He had been in the employ of a good firm with one bitterly unjust regulation. Any skipper of theirs who lost a ship, even through no fault of his own, had to go, and, though he had worked for them for twenty years, that was his fate when he piled up the Grimshaw Hall on the Manacles.
"And that's how they got me cheap," said Jordan. "And because poor Cade lost his master's certificate through an error of judgment they have him cheap, and they have my old chum Thripp cheap in the same way. Oh, they are a precious lot of swine, and I wish I had 'em here with me when we are out at sea. I'd tell 'em what I think of 'em, if I got the sack right off and had to ship before the mast."
Thripp the mate came by the cabin, and the skipper called to him.
"Yes, sir," said Thripp.
"Come in a moment," said Jordan. "I've something to tell you, something that will cheer you up and make you like the firm better than ever."
Thripp was also as grey as a badger, but not through age. He, too, had been a master mariner, and had lost his first and only command by running her against an iceberg in a fog. He had had orders to make a passage at all costs, but those orders were verbal, and his owners showed in court printed instructions that bade all their employees use extra caution in time of fog, even if a slow passage were the result. Therefore Messrs. Gruddle, Shody, & Co. got him cheap too.
"What's their charity now?" asked Thripp scornfully.
"It begins at home as usual," replied the skipper. "They have cut you and me down thirty bob a month and Cade a quid."
Thripp sighed, and then swore.