He went up to the second mate at the tally desk on the main deck below, and gave him some instructions. "I'm going ashore," he said, "and leave you in charge. Don't let too many of these niggers come aboard at once, and tell the steward to keep all the doors to below snugly fastened. I locked the chart-house myself when I came out. Have you heard about the mate?"
"Ah, I thought the news would have been spread well about the ship before it came to me. He's got in trouble ashore, and I suppose I must go, and see the Kady, and get him bailed out."
The second mate wiped the dust and perspiration from his face with his bare arm, and leant on the tally-desk, and grinned. Here seemed to be an opportunity for the relaxation of stiff official relations. "What's tripped him?" he asked. "Skirt or photographing?"
"He will probably tell you himself when he comes back," said Kettle coldly. "I shall send him to his room for three days when he gets on board."
The second mate pulled his face into seriousness. "I don't suppose he got into trouble intentionally, sir."
"Probably not, but that doesn't alter the fact that he has managed it somehow. I don't engage my mates for amusements of that kind, Mr. Grain. I've got them here to work, and help me do my duty by the owners. If they take up low class trades like artisting, they must be prepared to stand the consequences. You'll remember the orders I've given you? If I'm wanted, you'll say I'll probably be back by tea."
Captain Kettle went off then in a shore-boat, past a small fleet of pearling dhows, which rolled at their anchors, and after a long pull--for the sea was shallow, and the anchorage lay five miles out--stepped on to the back of a burly Arab, and was carried the last mile dry-shod. Parallel to him were lines of men carrying out cargo to the lighters which would tranship it to the _Parakeet_, and Kettle looked upon these with a fine complacency.
His tramping for cargo had been phenomenally successful. He was filling his holds at astonishingly heavy freights. And not only would this bring him credit with his owners, which meant promotion in due course to a larger ship, but in the mean time, as he drew his 2-1/2 per cent, on the profits, it represented a very comfortable matter of solid cash for that much-needing person himself. He hugged himself with pleasure when he thought of this new found prosperity. It represented so many things which he would be able to do for his wife and family, which through so many years narrow circumstances had made impossible.