"They do, but what is the truth about them? Nine out of ten of them have a disgraceful cause. But the public doesn't hear of that, because the public doesn't go to sea--except as a saloon passenger. The public gets its story from the steamship company's office--always, and you know what kind of a story they put out--put out through newspapers that carry their advertising. You know what that chief clerk or that second clerk of yours would tell any inquiring outsider in case of a loss of life on one of these ships. He'd lie and lie and lie and lie and think he was serving a good cause at that, and the papers publishing the lie would think they were serving a good cause, too--especially the constructive organization papers, as they call themselves. Our big steamship officers these days--outside of the navy--don't get the kind of work that keeps men up to the mark, and not getting it they grow soft--their bodies and their souls become flabby. Engineer officers nowadays have the work cut out for them and they are doing good work, but the bridge officers are no longer men of the sea--they're clerks, agents in floating hotels. And the crew take their tone from the officers. When the commander's weak, your whole outfit is apt to weaken, especially under a strain." They resumed their pacing, Kieran with head high in the air, inhaling deep breaths of the fresh salt air. The passenger came out of a deep meditation. "Kieran, you can do a good work for us. Is there any berth with this line you'd like to have? If there is, say so. You can have it. You can have that head clerk's job if you want it. And I think that after a while I could get you mine, for I'm only there to fill a gap." Kieran shook his head. "It wouldn't do." "Why not? You're the man for the job." "No, I'm not the man. You haven't got me quite right. I can point out errors, but I'm not the man to correct them. I'm not a good executive." "You certainly were the good executive in the bosun's case." "N-no, no. You mustn't count him. If he was a John L. Sullivan, say, in his good days, it would prove something. Besides, I don't care for fighting--for beating people up. I do hate though to see a bully or a faker getting the best of it, and maybe having had time to knock around and study people, I can pick out a bully or a faker quicker than most people, and seeing somebody getting too much the best of it, why, sometimes I can't help butting in." "And because of that faculty of seeing things, once you made up your mind to settle down to it, you'd make good on this job I'm offering you." "No, you've got me wrong again. I'm not a reformer, and never will be, I hope. Reformers, or most that ever I met, are only men who first tried to play politics and got licked at it. I'm only an observer." "But you like a fight?"