The Kidnapped President

he is destined to look back with a feeling that is very near akin to astonishment. Somebody has said tha

h the title of an adventure. The sailor's calling in these times of giant steamships is so vastly different from what it was in the old days of sailing ships and long voyages that, with the most ordinary luck, a man might work his way up the ratlines from ap

out of seven, a grumpy old chief mate, and a Scotch engineer, who could recite anything Burns ever wrote, backwards or forwards, as you might choose to ask him for it. When I had been six months on board the Pernambuco, I was made third officer; at the end of the year I signed my name on the pay-sheet as second. Eventually I got my Master's Certificate, and became chief officer. Now everybody knows, or ought to know, that the duties of chief officer on board a big liner, and, for the matter of that, on any other boat, are as onerous as they are varied. In the first place, he is the chief executive officer of the ship, and is held responsible, not only for its appearance, but also for the proper working of the crew. It is a position that requires consummate tact. He must know when to see things and when not to see them, must be able to pleas

reat dandy in his dress, and evidently looked upon himself as an undoubted lady-killer. So far as I was concerned, he had hardly set foot on the vessel before he commenced finding fault. A ship in dock, before the passengers come aboard, and while the thousand and one preparations are being made for a voyage, is seldom an

t the workmen out, sir," I replied, a bit nettled at b

sly, and then strutted down the bridge to his

ollowed suit. I felt sure my time would not be long in coming, and I was not wrong. On the second day out, and during my watch below, I was talking to the purser in his cabin, when the

asty before these ladies," I sa

that this was exactly w

told that you have refused the pas

it that I would have it brought up directly we were clear of the Channel. As a rule we neve

deck at once. I must ask you for the future to do all that lies in your power to promot

," I answered a

ndeed, by the time we reached Buenos Ayres, I felt as if I could throw up my appointment altogether. He

y this time the whole ship's company had taken his measure, and I fancy he must have known it. Being of a petty disposition, he attributed this to me, and accordingly laid himself out to make

with the darkest of dark eyes and hair, aquiline features, and a small pointed beard, that he had a habit of stroking when thinking. Taken altogether, a more romantic personality could scarcely be imagined, and as he came up the gangway, I told myself that he was the best figure of a man I had seen for some considerable time. When he asked me at what hour we should sail, I noticed that he spoke English perfectly, and in a musical voice that was ver

out to describe happened, were at work on the port rails of the promenade deck. One of them, who had been outside the rail, climbed over, pot in hand, to obey an order I had given him. At the moment that he did so, the long Atlantic swell caused the vessel to give a big roll, and before he could save himself, he was flying across the deck towards a c

d to me. "It was not his fault. I sha

she went below to

ad disappeared, the skipper emerged from th

this, sir?" he asked,

sir," I replied. "The roll of the sh

s to the fact that he was committing the unpardonable sin of admonishing an offi

heon I received an order to go to the captain's cabin. I could see that I was in for more

cabin and had closed the door, "that you deliberately kept t

plied, as civilly as I knew how, for I had no desire to lose my tem

t was that you did not tell me about that lady's dress being spoilt this morning. You should have repor

ir," I replied. "It was a pure accident, and Miss Burgess

ider you sadly wanting in your duty, Mr. Helmsworth. Of late, your manner has been most disrespe

per; "I have always had the reputation of turning my ship out well. If yo

ers. I repeat that your ship is a disgrace to any chief officer, and I shall tak

d enough to tell me what

ought yesterday I pointed out to

been repaired. I put the s

air with a look of

," he said, "and let us

companied him, but to my horror, when we reached the place in q

er your negligence by telling me what is not true," he said in a v

re than I c

ave given something to have been able to have knocked him down. "If you will send for the sail-maker, he will i

ou kept the men up to their work, this would not have been left un

I could quite see that if Harveston reported me, the Board would be likely to believe his version of the story, and even if they did not consider me quite as negligent as he was endeavouring to make me, they would probably argue that I was not all I might be, on the basis that there can be no smoke without fire. Whatever else might be said, a reputation

rom numberless little remarks he let fall, I gathered that he was the possessor of considerable wealth. Certainly he had seen a variety of strange life. Were it not that he narrated his advent

utions until the end of Time," I remarked one e

fingers. "If you take specimens of all the most excitable races in the world and graft them on stock even more excitable

ption of place," I returned. "It's a case of being in power

e Don replied meditatively. "And yet men are always to

g whether he had ever fel

Cape, a stockbroker in New York, and several other things. When I met him, he was, as I have said, in Paris, and practically starving. He could speak half the languages of the world well enough to be thought a native, was

ere is

ith the result that my friend had to vacate his office, also the country, at remarkably short notice. Some day he will go back and endeavour to

injury then?" I remarked, with a well-defin

ed. "At any rate, I am quite cer

ng I had been at sea, and what countries I had visit

g round to see that there was no one near the door, "but I

answered, and stopped there, for I had

s Certificate, do y

ffirmative, and onc

ping as captain," he went on after a long paus

h a laugh. "I fear, however, it will be some

ut I suppose, if you had an offer fr

to do so," I said, wondering at th

ou mar

skippers made money are past, and now-a-days, what with entertaining and one thing and another, it's as much as a man can do to make both ends meet. Sometimes I'm afraid

replied, and then he ros

t. His persistent recurrence to it gave me a feeling that there was something behind it all. But what th