"But he's a wonderfully quick-moving fellow, that pump-man, captain. And
he's surely got his nerve with him. Look at him leap across that open
hatch! If he fell short he'd get a thirty-foot drop and break his neck."
"And I wish he would break his neck. And so can a kangaroo hop around,
but you wouldn't pick a kangaroo to fight a bull buffalo. You'll find
out the difference, if ever he tackles my bosun. And no fear my bosun
won't get him. He'll get him, you see. And when they come together I'll
take good care there's no interruption."
"But why does the bosun hound him so? This man was no sooner aboard than
the bosun began to crowd him."
"Did he? And perhaps you think the bosun of an oil-tanker's goin' to
hand a man a type-written letter every time he wants to have a word with
him. He's a good bosun. He knows his business, and he saves me a lot of
trouble."
And what the captain did not say, but what Noyes imagined he saw in his
eye, was: "And I'll be telling you pretty soon to keep to yourself your
opinion of ship's matters."
When Noyes went to his room that night, it was for a stay of two days.
More than a year now since he had been to sea, and the weather passing
Hatteras had been bad. But now it was the fourth day out, and Hatteras
was far astern, and the ship was plunging easily southward, with the
white sandy shore of Florida abeam.
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