"Out you go!" shouted the unsober sailor in the large bar. "Out you go! You 'bey orders, see? Lord, you'd better 'bey orders when it's Cap'en Kemp! Ah, I know, I do!" And he shook his head, stupidly sententious. But the fellow was gone for good, and the pale man was all eyes, scratching his cheek feebly, and gazing on Grandfather Nat. "Out he goes!" the noisy sailor went on. "That's cap'en's orders. Cap'en's orders or mate's orders, all's one. Like father, like son. Ah, I know!'" "Ah," piped Mr. Cripps, "a marvellous fine orficer Cap'en Kemp must ha' been aboard ship, I'm sure. Might you ever ha' sailed under 'im?" "Me?" cried the sailor with a dull stare. "Me? Under _him_?... Well no, not under _him_. But cap'en's orders or mate's orders, all's one." "P'raps," pursued Mr. Cripps in a lower voice, with a glance over the bar, "p'raps you've been with young Mr. Kemp--the late?" "Him?" This with another and a duller stare. "Him? Um! Ah, well--never mind. Never you mind, see? You mind your own business, my fine feller!" Mr. Cripps retired within himself with no delay, and fixed an abstracted gaze in his half-empty glass. I think he was having a disappointing evening; people were disagreeable, and nobody had stood him a drink. More, Captain Nat had been quite impracticable of late, and for days all approaches to the subject of the sign, or the board to paint it on, had broken down hopelessly at the start. As to the man just sent away, Mr. Cripps seemed, and no doubt was, wholly indifferent. Captain Nat was merely exercising his authority in his own bar, as he did every day, and that was all. But the pale man was clearly uneasy, and that with reason. For, as afterwards grew plain, the event was something greater than it seemed. Indeed, it was nothing less than the end of the indirect traffic in watches and silver spoons. From that moment every visitor to the private compartment was sent away with the same peremptory incivility; every one, save perhaps some rare stranger of the better sort, who came for nothing but a drink. So that, in course of a day or two, the private compartment went almost out of use; and the pale man's face grew paler and longer as the hours went. He came punctually every morning, as usual, and sat his time out with the stagnant drink before him, till he received my grandfather's customary order to "drink up"; and then vanished till the time appointed for his next attendance. But he made no more excursions into the side court after sellers of miscellaneous valuables. From what I know of my grandfather's character, I believe that the pale man must have been paid regular wages; for Grandfather Nat was not a man to cast off a faithful servant, though plainly the man feared it. At any rate there he remained with his perpetual drink; and so remained until many things came to an end together.