This is my cabin; and I shall sometimes
have occasion to talk confidentially with my officers. Do you understand
what I mean, Dave?"
"Perfectly, Captain Passford: I know what it is to talk confidently and
what it is to talk confidentially, and you do both, sir," replied the
steward.
"But I am sometimes more confidential than confident. Now you must do
all your work in my state room when I am not in the cabin, and this is
the new rule," said Christy, as he went out of the room. "I know that I
can trust you, Dave; but when I tell a secret I want to know to how many
persons I am telling it. You may finish your work now;" and he closed
the door.
Christy could not have explained why he did so if it had been required
of him, but he went directly to the door leading out into the companion
way, and suddenly threw it wide open, drawing the portiere aside at the
same time. Not a little to his surprise, for he had not expected it,
he found a man there; and the intruder was down on his knees, as if in
position to place his ear at the keyhole. This time the young commander
was indignant, and without stopping to consider as long as the precepts
of his father required, he seized the man by the collar, and dragged him
into the cabin.
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