ABSTRACT
Charlie will not be going home via Suez at his own expense, as he had intimated earlier. Instead, he will accompany Paymaster Lathrop back to the United States, for, under Navy Regulations, as they existed at the time, pay clerks functioned much like indentured servants. Serving at the pleasure of their paymaster overlords, pay clerks could choose between unemployment and vassalage to their masters. They could seek out other paymasters or try for swaps with other pay clerks, but all this depended on the concurrence of their current and future overlords. Charlie began working for Paymaster Lathrop at a critical juncture in Lathrop's career. Charlie's superior performance redounded to Lathrop's credit, so he was unwilling to release Charlie the previous August. The longer Charlie worked, the better Lathrop looked. Confronting advancement exams and, apparently, an undistinguished professional record, Lathrop had prevailed on Charlie to remain with him until he returned to the states.
