“Certainly not. I’m quite within my rights. This part of the ocean belongs as much to me as to the _Rajah_. I’m not delaying you in the least, and all your talk of interference is mere humbug. If I ran my craft close enough to endanger yours, you might have a right to object; but I call your attention to the fact that we are under perfect control, and I can keep the distance between the ships to an inch. If I went farther away, I should be unable to converse with you without straining my throat, which I decline to do. Now, you will neither come aboard my vessel, nor allow me to go aboard yours.” “That’s right.” “Well, I don’t think it is. Nevertheless, you force me to do what I should much rather, for your sake, not do, and that is I am compelled to read your letter, and the documents I have referred to, in the hearing of your crew and my own.” “You may read what you like to the crew.” “Captain, I ask you to reconsider that dictum. I grant that you might honestly have made such a remark on any other voyage you have ever taken during your long seafaring life, except this one. Just think for a moment. Don’t reply rashly, and be assured that I mean no harm to you, nor to anybody else aboard your ship. Quite the contrary. What I intend to do will be greatly to your advantage, and to that of every man who is with you.” When Lord Stranleigh made reference to his present voyage, the captain, who had been leaning against the rail, stood up suddenly. The men were whispering with one another. The captain saw that Stranleigh had taken from his pocket several envelopes, and stood there awaiting his reply. At last the captain said huskily: “Will you come aboard alone, sir?” “Oh, quite alone, of course, since it is your wish, or you can come aboard here with half a dozen or a dozen men as your bodyguard, if you like. Bring the cannon, too, if it makes you feel any safer.” “I’d rather you came aboard here, sir.” “Very good. Fling over a slightly stronger line than you’d have sent down for the letter, and I’ll be with you in a jiffy.” “But how am I to know some others won’t climb up?” “Well, hang it, arm your men with handspikes, and knock ’em down again. Don’t keep me waiting here all night. It will be dark very soon, and I shan’t occupy more than ten minutes of your time. You seem spoiling for a fight, but I can’t accommodate you. I’m a man of peace, and that’s why I shudder when you speak to me of cannon. I swear I’ll tell Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and President Roosevelt the way you’re behaving. You’re a positive danger on the high seas, with your ultimatums, and your shots through the engine room, and all that. Heave over a line, and get your men to watch that the yacht doesn’t spring aboard of you. No wonder we English are disliked for our browbeating.”