Part 19 (2/2)

”What does it matter who it was? He said to watch out for him, too--that he was the kind who knew it all. Wherever the office got him I don't know. And if you know anybody in the office with a pull, you ought to put it up to them, Mr. Noyes, when you go back. This pump-man, he's the kind recognizes no authority.”

”Why, I thought he was very respectful toward your officers. And he seems to do his work on the jump, too, captain.”

”He carries out orders, yes; but if he felt like it, he'd tell me to go to h.e.l.l as quick as he'd tell the bosun. I can see it in his eye.”

”Don't you think he only wants to be treated with respect?”

”Treated with respect! Who do you think you're talkin' to--the cook? I don't have to treat one of my crew with respect. I'm captain of my own s.h.i.+p, do you hear?--captain of this s.h.i.+p, and I'll treat the crew as I d.a.m.n please.”

”I guess you will, too; but don't swear at me, captain. I'm not one of your crew.”

Noyes descended to the chart-room deck. ”I wish,” he breathed, ”that that pump-man had never seen this s.h.i.+p. They'll kill him before the day's over.”

III

The after-rail of the chart-room deck looked almost directly down the hatch whereon the fight was to take place. As Noyes was taking his position by the rail he guessed that the bosun must have just said something which pleased the crew, for most of them were still laughing heartily.

Kieran, on a camp-stool, waited for the laughter to simmer down. He fixed a mocking eye on the bosun. ”And so you're a whale, eh? And you'll learn me what a whale can do to little fishes? Well, let me tell you something about a whale, son. A whale is a sure enough big creature, but I never heard he was a fighting fish before. Now, if you knew more about some things, you'd never called yourself a whale, but a thrasher.

There's the best fighting fish of them all--the thrasher. The thrasher's the boy with the wallop. He's the boy that chases the whale, and leaps high out of the water, and snaps his long, limber tail, and bam! down he comes on that big slob of a whale and breaks his back. All the wise old whales, they take to deep water when they see a thrasher hunting trouble. It's the foolish young whales that don't know enough to let the thrasher alone.”

Noyes noted that the crew laughed more loudly at the bosun's rough jeers than at the more sharply pointed comment of the pump-man. But looking them over, he began to understand; these men were nearer to the bosun's type than the pump-man's. And also, no crew could long remain ignorant of which it was the captain favored. If the pump-man won, they would benefit by it, whether they were with him or no--some selfish instinct in them taught them that; while if the bosun were to win (and who could doubt that, looking at the two men?), why, 'twould be just as well to fly their colors early.

Yet there were those who favored the game-looking pump-man. Two or three had the courage to say so. It was these who cried out to give him fair play when some ten or a dozen were for rus.h.i.+ng him off the hatch before the fight had begun at all.

Kieran thanked these with a grateful look. ”That's all I want--fair play. Keep off the hatch and give us room to move around in.”

And yet it did seem for a moment as if the pump-man was to get no fair play, as if the bosun's adherents would overwhelm him as he stood there on the hatch. And Noyes experienced an unpleasant chill and began to appreciate the nerve of this man who defied a crowd of alien spirits aboard a strange s.h.i.+p. It was more than physical courage, and when they were making ugly demonstrations toward the pump-man it was in pure admiration of his nerve that Noyes called out: ”Hold up--fair play! Fair play, I say--he's only one.”

Coming from the pa.s.senger, it was the psychological act at the psychological moment. They drew back, and Kieran, looking up, put his thanks in his look.

The two men faced each other. Kieran eyed the other critically. Up and down, from toe to crown, he estimated his bulk; and then, taking a step to one side, he eyed him once more, as if to get the exact depth of him.

”Well,” said the bosun, and harking to his rising voice, his growling adherents simmered to silence, ”now yer've seen me, what d'yer think?”

”I've seen 'em just as big, hulks of full your length and beam and draught, and in a breeze I've seen vessels of less tonnage make 'em shorten sail.”

”And so yer've been in the wind-jammin' line, huh?”

”That and a few others,” answered Kieran tranquilly.

”Yer'll understand a talk then. An' here's a craft won't take any sail in before you. And yer quite a hulk in the water yourself, now yer've come out where we c'n get a peek at yer.”

”You ought to see me when I'm hauled out on the ways,” retorted Kieran.

”A fair little hulk out of water I may be, but it's below the water-line, like every good s.h.i.+p, I get my real bearings. But shall we get to business? I've been hearing about you for years. And for what you're going to do to me since I've come aboard--” Kieran threw up his hands. ”Oh, Lord, they tell me you drove your naked fist through the wall of a saloon up on West Street before the s.h.i.+p put out.”

”Yes, an' I can drive it through the side of you to-day.”

<script>