Consequently Michael J. decided to wake them up--provided they slept
on the job--and to give them an opportunity to repent before it should
be too late.

He felt very much better after sending that telegram, but as the
_Narcissus_ ploughed steadily south at the rate of two hundred and
thirty miles a day, he began to grieve because he had no wireless to
bring him a prompt reply; he berated himself for not waiting at the
dock in Norfolk until his owners should have had an opportunity to
answer; he abused himself for his timidity in questioning the judgment
of his owners, for indeed he had been content to hint when more
decisive action was demanded.

How Michael J. Murphy yearned to discuss his problem with some one as
loyal and devoted to the Blue Star Navigation Company as himself! His
dignity as master of the _Narcissus_, however, bade him refrain from
discussing the integrity of his owners with his mates--particularly
with new mates, to whom the house-flag stood for naught but a symbol
of monthly revenue. In fact, of the forty-one men under him, there was
but one with whom he could, with entire dignity, discuss the matter.
That man was Terence Reardon. But even here he was barred, for since
he had called the chief engineer a renegade, the only possible
discussion that could obtain between them now must be anything but
academic; in consequence of which Michael J. Murphy was forced to hug
his apprehensions to himself until the _Narcissus_ steamed slowly into
the outer harbor of Pernambuco. Ten minutes after she dropped her big
hook the skipper's suspicions were crystallized into certainty.

Just as she came to anchor the steward appeared on deck, vociferously
beating his triangle to announce supper--for at sea dinner is always