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With this parting shot he departed, before the girl could think of a suitable reply, and went and sulked in the dingy little fo’c’sle.

In the evening, the weather having moderated somewhat, and the tide being on the ebb, they got under way again, the girl coming on deck fully attired in an oilskin coat and sou’-wester to resume the command. The rain fell steadily as they ploughed along their way, guided by the bright eye of the “Mouse” as it shone across the darkening waters. The mate, soaked to the skin, was at the wheel.

“Why don’t you go below and put your oilskins on?” inquired the girl, when this fact dawned upon her.

“Don’t want ’em,” said the mate.

“I suppose you know best,” said the girl, and said no more until nine o’clock, when she paused at the companion to give her last orders for the night.

“I’m going to turn in,” said she; “call me at two o’clock. Good-night.”

“Good-night,” said the other, and the girl vanished.

Left to himself, the mate, who began to feel chilly, felt in his pockets for a pipe, and was in all the stress of getting a light, when he heard a thin, almost mild voice behind him, and, looking round, saw the face of the girl at the companion.

“I say, are these your oilskins I’ve been wearing?” she demanded awkwardly.

“You’re quite welcome,” said the mate.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” said the girl indignantly. “I wouldn’t have worn them for anything if I had known it.”

“Well, they won’t poison you,” said the mate resentfully. “Your father left his at Ipswich to have ’em cobbled up a bit.”

The girl passed them up on the deck, and, closing the companion with a bang, disappeared. It is possible that the fatigues of the day had been too much for her, for when she awoke, and consulted the little silver watch that hung by her bunk, it was past five o’clock, and the red glow of the sun was flooding the cabin as she arose and hastily dressed.

The deck was drying in white patches as she went above, and the mate was sitting yawning at the wheel, his eyelids red for want of sleep.

“Didn’t I tell you to call me at two o’clock?” she demanded, confronting him.

“It’s all right,” said the mate. “I thought when you woke would be soon enough. You looked tired.”

“I think you’d better go when we get to Ipswich,” said the girl, tightening her lips. “I’ll ship somebody who’ll obey orders.”

“I’ll go when we get back to London,” said the mate. “I’ll hand this barge over to the cap’n, and nobody else.”

“Well, we’ll see,” said the girl, as she took the wheel, “I think you’ll go at Ipswich.”

For the remainder of the voyage the subject was not alluded to; the mate, in a spirit of sulky pride, kept to the fore part of the boat, except when he was steering, and, as far as practicable, the girl ignored his presence. In this spirit of mutual forbearance they entered the Orwell, and ran swiftly up to Ipswich.

It was late in the afternoon when they arrived there, and the new skipper, waiting only until they were made fast, went ashore, leaving the mate in charge. She had been gone about an hour when a small telegraph boy appeared, and, after boarding the barge in the unsafest manner possible, handed him a telegram. The mate read it and his face flushed. With even more than the curtness customary in language at a halfpenny a word, it contained his dismissal.

“I’ve had a telegram from your father sacking me,” he said to the girl, as she returned soon after, laden with small parcels.

“Yes, I wired him to,” she replied calmly. “I suppose you’ll go NOW?”

“I’d rather go back to London with you,” he said slowly.

“I daresay,” said the girl. “As a matter of fact I wasn’t really meaning for you to go, but when you said you wouldn’t I thought we’d see who was master. I’ve shipped another mate, so you see I haven’t lost much time.”