Yes, Dan could see that perfectly, and he could also see the bad taste that lay in intimating dissatisfaction with his employer’s methods while wearing the uniform of Mr. Howland’s company and receiving good pay therefor.  And anyway, Mr. Howland had not asked him to cut Blancan warships in two and endanger the lives of the entire ship’s company and guests.  No, that was on his own head, his own hot head.

In the days of the present voyage he had felt a strong tendency to look beyond the bridge of the Tampico into the future.  Of course he liked adventure, but of late he had begun to feel that perhaps he had had enough of the strenuous life to last him the remainder of his years.  He certainly did not intend to grow gray on coastwise lines.  Bluff, gnarled old Harrison, his predecessor on this vessel, had served as a striking object lesson.  He could spin yarns of his adventures by the hour, but at best no one would call him anything but an interesting old character, a retired shell-back on half pay.  Dan found no pleasure in looking forward to anything of the sort.

Since he had gained a command in the famous Coastwise and West Indian Shipping Company, he had begun to commend himself to persons who never before had played a part in his life, principally a cousin of his father’s, a wealthy merchant of Boston, who had written him a long letter, received just before the Tampico sailed on her present voyage, expressing a desire to meet him.

“It is not possible,” the letter read, “you will want to follow the sea all your life.  There must be plenty of opportunities ashore for men of your evident executive ability and initiative.  I want you to come to Boston at your first opportunity.  I know I can give you good advice, and it may be I can prove of material assistance to you.”

When he first read the letter, Dan smiled to himself, not failing to note the interest taken in him by relatives, now he seemed to be proving his ability, who, heretofore, had known little about him and cared less.  But that is life, and he had a great deal rather be accepted for what he had done than because of mere ties of blood.  Thus thinking, he came to attach greater significance to the letter.  He would go on to Boston when the Tampico returned to the United States.  In the meantime he was Captain of a Howland boat, and he would obey orders, he smiled grimly, and go to the dinner.

The dinner was a memorable one in San Blanco City.  The revolution had been shattered.  The Rodriguez Government was supreme.  The Presidente’s palace was a blaze of lights.  Conspirators were being arrested and cast into prison.  Vehicles of all sorts were bearing dinner guests to the Hotel Garcia and dashing away.  There were foreign consuls in uniforms, and their wives; there was Rodriguez and his cabinet, and officers of the army in resplendent garb, and women who, when they threw their mantillas aside, revealed tawny necks and shoulders.