The gunner arrived and saluted the quarter-deck; the captain on this saluted him, and beckoned him to the weather side. On this the other officers kept religiously to leeward. “Mr. Monk,” said Dodd, “you will clean and prepare all the small arms directly.” “Ay, ay, sir,” said the old Niler, with a gleam of satisfaction. “How many of your deck-guns are serviceable?” This simple question stirred up in one moment all the bile in the poor old gentleman's nature. “My deck-guns serviceable! how the ---- _can_ they when that son of a sea-cook your third mate has been and lashed the water butts to their breechings, and jammed his gear in between their nozzles, till they can't breathe, poor things, far less bark. I wish _he_ was lashed between the devil's hind-hocks with a red hot cable as tight as he has jammed my guns. “Be so good as not to swear, Mr. Monk,” said Dodd. “At your age sir, I look to you to set an example to the petty officers.” “Well, I won't swear no more, sir, d--d if I do!” He added very loudly, and with a seeming access of ire, “And I ax your pardon, captain, and the deck's.” When a man has a deep anxiety, some human midge or mosquito buzzes at him. It is a rule. To Dodd, heavy with responsibility, and a dark misgiving he must not communicate, came delicately, and by degrees, and with a semigenuflexion every three steps, one like a magpie; and, putting his hands together, as our children do to approach the Almighty, delivered himself thus, in modulated tones, and good Hindostanee. “The Daughter of light, in whose beams I, Ramgolam, bask, glows with an amicable desire to see the lord commander of the ship resembling a mountain; and to make a communication.” Taught by sad experience how weighty are the communications the daughters of light pour into nautical commanders at sea, Dodd hailed Mr. Tickell, a midshipman, and sent him down to the lady's cabin. Mr. Tickell soon came back reddish, but grinning, to say that nothing less than the captain would do. Dodd sighed, and dismissed Monk with a promise to inspect the gun-deck himself; then went down to Mrs. Beresford and found her indignant. Why had he stopped the ship miles and miles from Macao, and given her the trouble and annoyance of a voyage in that nasty little boat? Dodd opened his great brown eyes, “Why, madam, it is shoal water off Macao; we dare not come in.” “No evasion, sir. What have I to do with your shoal water? It was laziness, and want of consideration for a lady who has rented half your ship.” “Nothing of the kind, madam, I assure you.” “Are you the person they call Gentleman Dodd?” “Yes.” “Then don't contradict a lady, or I shall take the liberty to dispute your title.”