men talked long of the exciting doings of the day and the policy that
should be adopted on the morrow, when they would be confronted with
officials that were not over well-disposed to British subjects. They
fully realized that the case would have to be managed with great
astuteness, so they bethought themselves of one of the cleverest and
most popular men in----, and sent a message to him asking his help.
His name need not be mentioned; he is long since dead, and it is
sufficient to say that he was an educated Maltese, and held a kind of
magnetic influence over the harbour authorities. The Admiral was an
amiable man in an ordinary way, and susceptible to the temptations
that beset officials in these places; but the _Claverhouse's_ offence
was no common one, nor could it be approached in an ordinary way of
speech.

On going ashore, the captains were ushered into the presence of the
infuriated official who was to decide their destiny. He fumed and
foamed savagely, and whenever an attempt was made to speak his
paroxysms became inhuman. Their Maltese friend had come to their aid,
and was waiting patiently for the storm to subside, so that he could
explain how it happened that the regulations came to be broken. Things
looked black until Mr. C---- began to speak in Russian. It took him
some time to get the great man pacified, and as soon as that was
accomplished he said to the master of the _Claverhouse_--"You know
that you could be sent to Siberia or less. How am I to explain it? Why
did you not keep at sea all night? There is only one thing that will
save you."

"Well, then," responded the captain of the _Claverhouse_, "let that
one thing be arranged; but let me also state the cause of our breaking
the law. We could have kept the sea quite well had we known exactly