He shook hands and was gone. So for the last four days, old man, I have been muddling through. It is just as though you had been put in command of the _Auvergne_ and being master is very different from receiving orders. There are a lot of things in which you have to make a decision, instead of merely listening and carrying on. Before, I used to think that Fourgues had rather a heavy hand, but now I think that to make things go you have to have an eye on everything and not spare your men. Most of the time I am in overalls rummaging around the boilers and in the tunnel of the screw. Things are coming on. The _Pamir_ has been scraped and will get her second coat of paint to-day. One boiler and half of another have been retubed. Fourgues calculated the business very well. It can be done in ten days by not losing an hour. We are hard at it. The crew is all right. You know what it is to fall in love with a boat; and then when you see that you are of some use--say, old man, if we are ready in ten days there’ll be no holding me. MALTA, _June 17, 1915_. DEAR OLD MAN, I believe the _Pamir_ really is engaged this time in the Eastern affair. We have been here for a month and a half and it doesn’t look as though it were going to be over right away. I ask nothing better, because at present this is the only place where interesting things are happening. Fourgues also is pleased. We get about, we transport stuff. We are not doing the big work, sure, but at any rate the Merchant Service is doing all it can and the old _Pamir_ wastes no time. She runs all by herself now, since the shaft and tubes were changed--which is to say that she is entirely refitted. At Newcastle I wasn’t ready in ten days after all, but in eleven. But as we were well advanced the tenth day, I wired Fourgues “Ready!” and then shook in my shoes for fear he would get there before it was all done. I made them work night and day the last twenty-four hours, but the crew never flinched. In short, when Fourgues arrived they were letting the water into the dock and an hour afterwards the _Pamir_ was alongside the wharf. Of course he saw I’d cheated a little, but said never a word, for his little trip had put him in a good temper. “Very good, my boy. I will send a report to the owner and say that he can give you a boat when one is free--which won’t be yet awhile, you may be sure.”