The quarrel in the fire-department was less political than personal; for, of course, both “Jiggers” and “Anti-Jiggers” were adherents of Tammany Hall. It was a quarrel between the old chief, Borden, and the new Fire Commissioner, who was in some degree indebted to the “Jiggers” for his appointment; they had used their “voice and influence” for him with “the Boss”; Chief Borden had objected to their doing so, and had used his position to make life uneasy for their leaders, among whom was Deputy-Chief Moran. The quarrel had passed down from the officers to the men; Captain Keighley had undertaken to stop it in his company by preferring charges against the malcontent Doherty and having him “broken” by the chief; and this unexpected action had uncovered a whole conspiracy against him with Lieutenant Moore at its head. Now, if Chief Borden were retired by order of the Commissioner, Keighley would be left without a friend in power; Moran would be made chief; and the full revenge of Keighley’s enemies would fall upon him. He had no hope of avoiding it. He had no intention of trying to conciliate it. He was resolved merely to fight--after the manner of his kind--and to attend to his duties on the _Hudson_ as thoroughly as possible, meanwhile, so that there might be no valid excuse for removing him from his command. It was in this spirit that he received his men as they returned one by one to their work--and relieved the strangers who had been detailed in their places while they were in the hospital--and settled down again to pierhouse routine. “Shine” Conlin was the first to reappear, and he reported to the captain with a sort of hangdog shamefacedness; but Keighley--old, cold and silent--showed no sign of remembering the part the little wharf-rat had played aboard the _Sachsen_, and “Shine” resumed possession of his locker and his bunk, with the abashed grin of a guilty schoolboy who is allowed to return to his place in his class under suspended sentence. Sturton--“The Turr’ble Turk”--came eagerly, having a clear conscience; and he was a little crestfallen after his reception; whereas the sly and sandy Cripps accepted the captain’s manner as a tribute to his own powers of concealment and winked to himself in secret self-congratulation as he came out of the office, his eyes on his feet. The loyal Farley looked blank. The others behaved according to their natures and their degrees of innocence or guilt. Only Lieutenant Moore--the last to arrive, very pale and shaken--received any intimation that Keighley had not forgotten what had occurred; and he received it in the captain’s refusal to allow him to write the company’s reports, as he had been accustomed.