"Now then, Bill, steady does it," whispered Mr. Jope, and saluted again. "You'll excuse me, sir, but Mr. Wapshott was below last night when we brought you aboard from dinin' with his R'yal Highness." "I remember nothing," groaned Captain Crang. "I never _do_ remember when--and before the Duke too!" Mr. Jope coughed. "His R'yal Highness, sir--if you'll let me say so--was a bit like what you might call everyone else last night. He shook hands very affectionate, sir, at parting, an' hoped to have your company again before long." "Did he so? Did he so?" said Captain Crang. "And--er--could you at the same time call to mind what I answered?" Mr. Jope looked down modestly. "Well, sir, having my hands full at the time wi' this here little lot, I dunno as I can remember precisely. Was it something about the theayter, Bill?" he demanded, turning to Mr. Adams. "It wor," answered Mr. Adams sturdily. "And as how you'd never shipped a crew o' playactors afore, but you'd do your best?" "Either them very words or to that effect," confirmed Mr. Adams, breathing hard and staring defiantly at the horizon. "The theatre? . . . I was at the theatre?" Captain Crang passed a shaking hand over his brow. "No, damme! . . . and yet I remember now at dinner I heard the Duke say--" Here it was Captain Crang's turn to stare dumbfounded at an apparition, as a pair of handcuffed wrists thrust themselves up through the main hatchway and were painfully followed by the rest of Mr. Orlando B. Sturge. "Oh, good Lord! Look! Is the ship full of 'em?" shouted the Captain. "They ain't real," murmured Mr. Wapshott soothingly. "You'll get accustomed. They began by being frogs," he explained, with the initiatory air of an elder brother, and waved a feeble hand. "Eggs-- if you'll 'low me, sir, to conclude--egg-sisting in the 'magination only. Go 'way--shoo!" But Mr. Sturge was not to be disembodied so easily. On the contrary, as the vessel lurched, he sat down suddenly with a material thud and clash of handcuffs upon the poultry-coop, nor was sooner haled to his feet by the strong arm of Mr. Adams than he struck an attitude and opened on the Captain in his finest baritone. "'Look,' say'st thou? Ay, then, look! Nay, gloat if thou wilt, tyrant--miscreant shall I say?--in human form! Yielding, if I may quote my friend here"--Mr. Sturge laid both handcuffed hands on the shoulder of Bill Adams--"yielding to none, I say, in my admiration of Britain's Navy, I hold myself free to protest against the lawlessness of its minions. I say deliberately, sir, its minions. My name, sir, is Orlando B. Sturge. If that conveys aught to such an intelligence as yours, you will at once turn this vessel round and convey us back to Plymouth with even more expedition than you brought us hither." Captain Crang fell back and caught at the mizzen shrouds.