"I see," he said. "Shanghaied--eh? Well, I must say he owed me one: I fairly barked his nose for him that night. But now that he has had me knocked on the head and shipped on board this old ark, I think he has overpaid me. I owe him one again; and, with any luck, he shall have it." "Do you remember being slugged?" said Allerton. "Can't say I do precisely. Let me see. I recollect coming along Forty-second Street on my way to the Manhattan. I'd been dining at the Lambs, and I stopped a minute on the sidewalk under an L railway-track to light my pipe, when--yes, it must have happened then." "I expect you had been shadowed all day," said Allerton. "But I'm forgetting my duties. You are wanted on deck." "Who wants me? Noddy Kinahan?" "Not much! He doesn't travel by his own ships. It's the captain. I understand that you are to be presented to the company as a little stowaway, and great surprise and pain will be officially manifested at your appearance on board." "All right. Come along and introduce me." Captain Kingdom's method of dealing with stowaways--natural and artificial--was simple and unvarying. On presentation, he first of all abused them with all the resources of an almost Esperantic vocabulary, and then handed them over to Mr. Gates to be kicked into shape. On Hughie Marrable's appearance on deck, the captain proceeded with gusto to Part One of his syllabus. Hard words break no bones, and Hughie, who was breathing in great draughts of sea-air and feeling less dizzy and more collected each minute, set no particular store by the oratorical display to which he was being treated. In fact, he was almost guilty of the discourtesy of allowing his attention to wander. He set the crown upon his offence by interrupting the captain's peroration. "Look here, skipper," he said, brusquely breaking in upon a period, "you can drop that. My name is Marrable. I am not a stowaway, and I have been dumped on board this ship by order of--" "Your name," said Captain Kingdom with relish, "is anything I choose to call you; and as you stowed yourself away on board--" "Look here," said Hughie, "I want a word with you--in your own cabin for choice. All right," he continued with rising voice, as the captain broke out again, "I'll have it here instead. First of all, what is Mr. Noddy Kinahan paying you for this job?" The captain turned to the mate. "Sock him, Mr. Gates!" he roared. Mr. Gates, whose curiosity--together with that of the rest of the crew--had been roused, as Hughie meant it to be, by the latter's reference to Mr. Noddy Kinahan's share in the present situation, moved forward to his task with less alacrity than usual, and paused readily enough when Hughie continued:-- "If you'll put back, captain, and land me anywhere within a hundred miles of New York, I'll give you double what Kinahan is paying you for this job." "You _look_ like a man with money, I must say!" replied Kingdom. "Now then, Mr. Gates!"