The more he reflected on the attitude of Morris's, the more it irritated him, and he yearned to make this irritation known.
Perhaps there was more than a little of the spirit of bravado in the call he proposed to pay.

He planned, the next day, to sail the Jasper B.out into the bay and up and down the coast for a few miles, to give himself and his men a bit of practice in navigation before setting out for the China Seas.

And he could not bear to think that the hostile denizens of Morris's should think that he had moved the Jasper B.from her position through any fear of them.

He reasoned that the most pointed way of showing his opinion of them would be to walk casually into Morris's barroom and order a drink or two.

If Cleggett had a fault as a commander it lay in these occasional foolhardy impulses which he found it difficult to control.