"Well," said Falk, "didn't we?" "No, by heaven, you didn't," Roger cried suddenly, taking the floor from me. "I know how you beat Hayden. I know how you two drove him to throw himself overboard. You're a precious pair! And what's more, all the men forward know it. While we're about it, Captain Falk, here's something else I know. According to the log, which you consistently have refused to let me see the course is northeast by north. According to the men at the wheel,--I will not be still! I will not close my mouth! If you assault me, sir, I will break your shallow head,--according to the men at the wheel, of whom I have inquired, according to the ship's compass when I've taken a chance to look at it, according to the tell-tale that you yourself can see at this very minute and--" Roger laid on the table a little box of hard wood bound with brass--"according to this compass of my own, which I know is a good one, our course is now and has been for two days east-northeast. Captain Falk, do you think you can make us believe that Manila is Canton?" "It may be that I do, and it may be that I do not," Falk retorted hotly. "As for you, Mr. Hamlin, I'll attend to your case later. Now sign that statement, Lathrop." Falk was standing. His hands, a moment before lifted for a blow, rested on the table; but the knuckles were streaked with red along the creases, and the nails of his fingers, which were bent under, he had pressed hard against the dull mahogany. When he had finished speaking, he sat down heavily. "Sign it, Ben," said Roger; "but first draw your pen through that particular sentence." Quick as thought I did what Roger told me, leaving a single broad line through the words "and did what they might to make his last hours comfortable"; then I wrote my name and laid the pen on the table. [Illustration: "Sign that statement, Lathrop," said Captain Falk.] Leaning over to see what I had done, Falk leaped up white with passion. "Good God!" he yelled, "that's worse than nothing." "Yes," said Roger coolly, "I think it is." "What--" Falk stopped suddenly. Kipping had touched his sleeve. "Well?" Kipping whispered to him. "No," Falk snarled, glancing at me, "I'm going to take that young pup's hide off his back and salt it." Again Kipping whispered to him. This time he seemed half persuaded. He was a weak man, even in his passions. "All right," he said, after reflecting briefly. "As you say, it don't make so much odds. Myself, I'm for slitting the young pup's ears--but later on, later on. And though I'd like to straighten out the record as far as it goes--Well, as you say." For all of Captain Falk's bluster and pretension, I was becoming more and more aware that the subtle Kipping could twist him around his little finger, and that for some end of his own Kipping did not wish affairs to come yet to a head.