“Excuse me, O’Hara, as I am not on duty just now, if I speak to you as a friend.” “Certainly, my boy: blaze away! I won’t put you in irons for any thing you may say now,” added O’Hara curiously; for he had not the least idea that he had done any thing wrong, or even out of taste. “Don’t you think it would have been better if you had answered Gregory and Clinch in a little different way?” “What do you mane? Wasn’t I civil to them? Didn’t I smile as sweetly upon them as though they hadn’t raised a ghost of an objection to the watches?” “Of course you are the captain, and you were not obliged to make any explanations; but don’t you think it would have been better if you had been a little more conciliatory toward Gregory and Clinch, even if they were a little wrong?” asked Tom. “Faix, I don’t know: I didn’t think of that,” repeated O’Hara thoughtfully. “They supposed it was my arrangement they were objecting to all the time, when it was the orders of the senior vice-principal himself.” “So much the worse, if they thought the plan was your own,” added Tom. “Well, now, I thought it was so much the better!” exclaimed the captain. “So much the better for you, but so much the worse for Gregory and Clinch,” continued Tom. “Possibly the first officer thought you ought to have consulted with him about the arrangement of the watches. All I mean to say is, that it would have been more magnanimous to have told Gregory, when he objected, that you were only carrying out the orders of the vice-principal.” “Perhaps you are right, Tom, my darling,” added O’Hara, musing. “It was not in the midst of an emergency, O’Hara; and he did not refuse to obey orders. If he had, and you had knocked him down, it would have been all right. It is only fair to let the first and third officers know, if they object to any thing, that they are kicking against the senior vice-principal, and not against you,” continued Tom, as sagely as though he was a fit judge to settle a case between his captain and an officer above himself. “That’s all very well; and I think you are right this time, Tom, if you never were before,” answered O’Hara. “But am I to make a distinction between the enforcement of my own orders and those of the powers above me? If I tell the officer of the deck, and it happens to be Gregory or Clinch, to stop the engine, am I to explain that this is the order of the senior vice-principal, and not my own? or, if it should be my own, to argue that it is all right?” “Certainly not; nothing of the kind! I said in the beginning that this was a matter of magnanimity, and not of right. Your orders are to be obeyed without a question on the part of any one on board; not even Capt. Fairfield or Mr. Shakings having the right to object.”