Charles Beadle

“ Now, if you were a man would you care to live this life of sheer slavery for a pittance for twenty years to gain command of a ship like this where you'd be bound down, tied for the rest of your life? And how long d'you suppose it would take a saving man—not me, by ——!—a saving man to save a thousand pounds out of ten pounds a month? ”

“ Vi rushed after him.
“Uncle, I heard. Don't take any notice of the cad.”
He looked at her, frowning.
“What's the matter with the man?” he grumbled.
“He won't and can't do anything. He's probably half-drunk and threatening nonsense.”
“No, it isn't nonsense, Vi. You don't know. Old Selwyn thinks the world of this boy of his; and after all it's my bread and butter.”
“Oh, but they wouldn't; they couldn't, uncle!”
“But they do, Vi. Only the year before the war old Belknap was thrown out of the Chisholm to make place for a youngster of thirty who happened to be a schoolmate of this man here.” ”

“ Presently she heard a step and saw Selwyn emerge from the companionway. A dread that he was coming over to apologize to her faded as he deliberately dragged his chair, which. was already some distance away from hers, right across in front of her to the other side of the deck. A flare of a match as he lighted a cigar showed a sullenly angry face. Oh, —— the man, she thought. How perfectly dreadful to be cooped up on a boat with a creature like that! ”