ing sun; for,
although there was an awning over the poop, there was nothing forwards
to shield them from the heat unless they crouched under the lee of the
bulwarks and water-casks.

Davis didn't like to see them taking it easy in this fashion, so,
catching hold of a marlinespike which someone had left on top of the
cabin skylight, he began rapping the rail at the break of the poop with
it.

"Come, rouse up there, you lubbers!" he cried. "I'm not going to allow
any caulking in my watch, no matter what the first mate chooses to let
you do. Tumble up!"

The men stretched themselves and rose up grumbling, whereupon Davis
pitched upon Jackson, who had been asleep under the long-boat and was
the last to show a leg, not hearing the second mate's call until a
messmate awoke him.

"Hi, you, Jackson!" he roared out. "I'll give you something to cure
your laziness! I'll haze you, I will, you hound! Get a bucket of
grease from the cook's caboose and slush the mainmast down."

"I'm no hound, sir!" retorted Jackson angrily, drawing himself up to his
full height and flaring up angrily at Davis' uncalled-for abuse. "The
mast doesn't need slushing; it was only done over the day before
yesterday."

"What, you dare to answer me, you mutinous dog!" roared out Davis,
raised to a pitch of fury by the seaman not recognising, as he thought,
his authority as second mate and officer of the watch. "I tell you
what, you shall slush that mast down from the main-truck to the bitts;
and look sharp about it, too, or I'll make you!"

"Make me!" repeated Jackson scornfully. "I'd like to see you lay a
finger on me!"

Davis fairly foamed at the mouth with passion at this, the more
particularly as the other men, grouped below in the waist, were
sniggering and passing sly jokes from one to another about the affair.

He started to go down the poop-ladder, brandishing the marlinespike
savagely, with the evident intention of attacking Jackson and trying to
compel him to obey his orders, utterly unnecessary and vindictive as
they were; but, what from having been drinking heavily of late and the
fresh air and exposure to the sun having increased the intoxicating
effect of the rum which he doubtless had just swallowed before coming on
deck to take charge of the watch, he reeled off the ladder as soon as he
got to the bottom--falling down all of a heap right in front of the
cabin door at the very moment that Captain Miles, who had been roused u