The Parakeet was a cargo tramp, and carried no passenger certificate, but a letter of recommendation like this was equivalent to a direct order, and Kettle signed Mr. Wenlock on to his crew list as “Doctor,” and put to sea with an anxious mind.

Wenlock waited awhile, watching squalid Suez sink into the sea behind; and then he spoke again.

“Look here, Captain,” he said, “those South Arabian ports have got a lot worse reputation than they really deserve.  The people down there twenty years ago were a pack of pirates, I’ll grant you, but nowadays they know that if they get at any of their old games, a British gunboat promptly comes up next week and bombards them at two-mile range, and that’s not good enough.  They may not be honest from inclination, but they’ve got the fear of the gunboat always handy, and that’s a wonderful civilizing power.  I tell you, captain, you needn’t be frightened; that pirate business is exploded for now and always.”

“I know all about the piratical hankerings of those South Arabian niggers, sir,” said Kettle stiffly, “and I know what they can do and what they can’t do as well as any man living.  And I know also what I can do myself at a push, and the knowledge leaves me pretty comfortable.  But if you choose to think me frightened, I’ll own I am.  It’s the navigation down there that gave me cold shivers the first moment you mentioned it.”

“Why, it’s no worse than the Red Sea here, anyway.”

“Red Sea’s bad, but you can get good charts of it and rely on them.  South Arabian coast is no better, and the charts aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.  There are bad tide-rips down there, sir, and there are bad reefs, and there’s bad fog, and the truth of it is, there’s no handier place to lose a ship in all the big, wide world.”

“I wouldn’t like you to wreck the steamer down there.  It might be awkward for me getting back.”

“Quite so,” said Kettle, “you’re thinking of yourself, and I don’t blame you.  I’m thinking of myself also.  I’m a man that’s met a great deal of misfortune, sir, and from one thing and another I’ve been eight years without a regular command.  I had the luck to bring in a derelict the other day, and pocket a good salvage out of her, and my present owners heard of it, and they put me as master of this steamer, just because of that luck.”

“Nothing like luck.”

“If you don’t lose it.  But I am not anxious to pile up this steamboat on some uncharted reef just because luck has left me, and have to wait another eight years before I find another command.”

“And, as I say, I’m as keen as you are not to get the steamer wrecked, and if there’s any way she can be kept out of a dangerous area, and you can manage to set me ashore where I want in a boat, just you say, and I’ll meet you all I can.  But at the same time, Skipper, if you don’t mind doing a swap, you might give me a good deal of help over my matter in return.”