Dave set his teeth hard. "I'd like to send a shot across her bows!" he muttered, glaring at the audacious destroyer which was plainly running away from them. The jackies looked up eagerly at him, with their hands on the breach of the four-inch rifle; not a few fists were shaken at the departing stranger. It was a temptation, but the commander overcame it.
"It won't do to open fire, just for a steward," he said to his subordinates, who were standing at his side with scowling faces. "On her course, quartermaster!"
"On her course, sir. East by south, quarter south."
"It's a regular insult," stormed Liddon, for once shaken out of his regularly calm demeanour. "It's abduction on the high seas! It's piracy, that's what it is!"
"More like the press-gang," said Dobson, laconically.
"Well," said Rexdale, after a pause, "Japan will have to apologise for that little performance when we've reached a cable port."
"Is Oto an American citizen?" enquired Liddon.
"I'm afraid not. I never heard him speak of naturalisation."
"Then I suppose it's hardly an international episode," said the other, recovering his usual dignity of speech. "Perhaps the boy is an escaped criminal. At worst, I'm afraid the captain of the Kiku has only been guilty of bad manners."
"I shall report the incident to the Department at the first opportunity," said the commander decisively. "They can do what they like about it."