bought, I had paid all the port dues and other charges, I had
advanced the men one-fourth of their wages each month, and I had
brought them back the balance.

"Such a hubbub you never heard. One would have thought they would
have gone raving mad. The sanctimonious partner was the worst of the
lot. He threatened me with the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen, and went
on till I thought he would have had a fit.

"Look here, says I, at last, I'll tell you what I will do. You tell
me what the cargo cost you altogether, and put on so much for the
hire of the ship. I will pay you for them and settle up with the
crew, and take the cargo and sell it. That is a fair offer. And I
advise you to keep civil tongues in your heads, or I will knock them
off and take my chance before the Lord Mayor for assault and battery.

"With that I took off my coat and laid it on a bench. I reckon they
saw that I was in earnest, and they just sat as mum as mice. Then the
little man said, in a quieter sort of voice,--

"'You are too hasty, Captain Dowsett. We know you to be an honest man
and a good sailor, and had no suspicion that you would wrong us; but
no merchant in the City of London could hear that his business had
been conducted in such a way as you have carried it through without
for a time losing countenance. Let us talk the matter over reasonably
and quietly.'

"That is just what I am wanting, I said; and if there hasn't been
reason and quiet it is from no fault of mine.