HE LISTENED TO REASON.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9064, 3 February 1908, Page 6

HE LISTENED TO REASON.

Going into a port where the water .\vas very deep—Rio Janeiro, I believe—relates Captain A. T. Mahan, the chain cables “got away,” as the expression is. Control was lost, and shackle after shackle tore out of the hawse holes, leaping and thumping, rattling and roaring. The Admiral was on deck at the moment, and when the chain had been at last stopped and secured, he said to the captain: ‘ ‘ Allred send for the young man in charge of those chains and give him a good setting-down. Ask him what he means by letting snob things happen.” The officer was sent for, and soon his questioning blue eyes appeared over the hatchcoaming. Alfred was £ mild perscn, and clearly did not like this job; he could not have come up to the ad-

miral’s standard. The latter saw it and intervened : : ‘ Perhaps you had better leave it to me I’ll settle him.” Fixing his eye on the offender, he said, sternly: “What do you mean by this, sir? Why the hell did you not stop that chain?” The culprit, looking quietly at him, re- , plied, simply, “How the hell could I Vf ■ This was a shift in the wind for which the admiral was unprepaf ed. He was taken flat aback. ' Alter a moment’s hesitation he turned to the captain and said meekly, yet with evident consciousness of a checkmate, “That’s true, Alfred; how the hell could he?”