'Why not try kicking me instead?'
'I'll give you in charge for mutiny when we get back to Grimsby.'
'I shouldn't be in a hurry to enter a police-court, if I were you. Prosecutors are sometimes asked unpleasant questions.'
The chief engineer at that moment came up from the engine-room.
'Skipper, I want a word with you,' he said.
'Right you are,' the skipper replied, and walked over to him, well pleased to bring his argument with Charlie to an end. Charlie was not really a very formidable opponent for a grown man, but Skipper Drummond, like many bullies, was a great coward.
Charles, left alone, resumed his seat on the ropes and, forgetting for a time the skipper's existence, spent a pleasant half-hour in thinking over the story which Ping Wang had related to him.
About three hours after the quarrel, the Sparrow-hawk arrived at the 'Dogger,' a submarine bank, the nearest point of which is about sixty miles from England. It is one hundred and seventy miles long and seventy miles broad.
'We shall shoot in an hour's time,' the mate said to Charlie, 'and you must give us a hand.'
'Whom are you going to shoot?' Charlie inquired, jokingly.