And Mr. Ware bellowed like a bull, for he had a fine foretopsail voice, and when it was a real breeze his language rose with the seas and was fine and flowery, vigorous and ornamental, and magnificent. While he was in the middle of a peroration which would have excited envy in Cicero, or Burke, or a barrister with no case, he heard the owner shouting; for a private interview with the steward had given Geordie great confidence. "Mr. Ware, Mr. Ware, I'd be glad if you'd cuss the men less. I don't like it." The chief officer collapsed as if he were a balloon with a hole in it. And for the next minute he and the skipper engaged in an excited conversation. "I can't--can't stand it," said Ware. "You must," said old Smith, almost tearfully. And Ware did stand it. But when the _Patriarch_ was shortened down and he left the deck, he went below and swore very horribly for five minutes by any chronometer. "Now I know what Brose feels," said Ware. "I've a great sympathy for poor Brose." The owner ordered a tot for all hands when they came down from aloft. And he called the cook aft and harangued him from the break of the poop. "Now, Mr. Spoil-Grub, mind you cook better than you've been doin', or I'll have you ducked in a tub and set your mate to do your work." He turned to the skipper with a beaming smile in his blue eyes. "I can talk straight, can't I, cap?" he hiccoughed, blandly. "I'm thinkin' I'll lie down in the cabin." And when the old man went below he found Geordie dossing in his own sacred bunk. The poor old chap went and sat in the cabin and put his head on his hands. "This is a most horrid experience," he said, mournfully. "I don't like howners on board--I don't like 'em a bit." But it was not only the after-guard who suffered. Geordie shifted his dunnage aft at last, and though when he was sober he left the skipper's berth, he made himself very comfortable in the steward's. And he loafed about all day on deck with his pipe in his mouth. He began to look at the men with alien eyes. "I tell you they're loafin'," said he to Ware. "Don't I know 'em? They watches you like cats, and when your eyes are off 'em they do nothin'. I'm payin' 'em to work and I'm payin' you to make 'em. There's a leak somewhere." And he addressed the crowd from the poop. "You're a lazy lot," he said, "that's wot you are. For two pins I'd put out the galley fire, and I'd cut off your afternoon watch below." And next day he raised their wages. A week later he cut them down again. The skipper had a hard job to keep track of what the ship owed them. "I wish we was home," groaned old Smith. "Oh, he'll be a terror of an owner!" "I'll murder him," said Brose. "Wot did I tell you chaps about the 'orrid effecs of sudden richness on a man?" asked the old fo'c's'le man for'ard. "Geordie Potts was a good sort, but Mr. George Potts, Esquire, is an 'oly terror. 'E raises hus hup and cuts hus down like grass."