“‘Refer it?  To who?’

“‘To the captain of the yard, sir.’

“‘Captain of the—­D’y’ mean the Savannah can’t use that bit of rotten old hose without authority?’

“’Well, sir, you see it is like this.  You see, sir, I have to do things the way they are laid down for me.  The Savannah could, perhaps, use that section of hose, especially if you say so, sir, but—­’

“‘But what?’

“’But if, sir, the captain of the yard should learn it, as he might, sir, and he should feel slighted, or if an inspector should happen along when it was in use, and discover that the items in the scrap-heap did not tally with his list, that there was a section of hose missing, that it was being used without authority by the Savannah—­’

“‘Oh, you and your coulds and your shoulds!’ snaps the commandant.  ’Give me sea duty in place of any of these shore billets any time.  Aboard ship I have only to nod my head to my executive officer and a thing’s done; but here—­O Lord!  But go ahead, make out a request, or requisition, or warrant, or whatever’s necessary, and let’s have it fixed up.’

“And Heels, who used to be in the army when he was young, but didn’t like—­or, rather, Mrs. Heels didn’t like—­to be told of it, he snaps his heels together, starts his arm as if to salute, but stops in time, says, ‘Yes, sir,’ goes off to his little desk, and typewrites Endorsement No. 1 to the back of the captain of the Savannah’s letter, gets the commandant’s signature, and sends the messenger with it to the captain of the yard.

“And right here was when it really got under way.  You see, if the commandant had ’phoned over to the captain of the yard and said in an off-hand, fine-day sort of way, ’I suppose it will be all right to let the Savannah have that hose for a day or two, won’t it?’ why, the captain of the yard would have said, ’Why, yes, sir, let ’em have it.’  But he hadn’t yet sized up this new commandant.  He only knew he had the reputation of being a martinet aboard ship, and now came this formal letter with its endorsement and right away the yard captain said to himself, ’He’s a strict one—­an endorsement on it already, and that Savannah captain, he must be a strict one, too.  What are they trying to do—­trying to catch me below when I ought to be on deck?  I guess not.’  He had heard of chaps that you thought you were safe with and you stretched a point or two to help them out, one of those little things that anybody would think would get by all right; and then, when something went wrong, they’d turn around and say, ’Why did you allow this?’ and you had no authority to show why you did allow it.  There was that last case at League Island, and a friend of his, only the year before.  There were two damaged rubber raincoats and a pair of old rubber boots, and the commandant that time had said to his friend:  ’See here, I’m tired of looking at those things.  Why don’t you