in my eye? A lark's a lark.'

'Well, now, I'll explain this business, and you'll see (once for all)
just precisely how much lark there is to it,' said Davis. 'I'm captain,
and I'm going to be it. One thing of three. First, you take my orders
here as cabin steward, in which case you mess with us. Or second, you
refuse, and I pack you forward--and you get as quick as the word's said.
Or, third and last, I'll signal that man-of-war and send you ashore
under arrest for mutiny.'

'And, of course, I wouldn't blow the gaff? O no!' replied the jeering
Huish.

'And who's to believe you, my son?' inquired the captain. 'No, sir!
There ain't no lark about my captainising. Enough said. Up with these
blankets.'

Huish was no fool, he knew when he was beaten; and he was no coward
either, for he stepped to the bunk, took the infected bed-clothes
fairly in his arms, and carried them out of the house without a check or
tremor.

'I was waiting for the chance,' said Davis to Herrick. 'I needn't do the
same with you, because you understand it for yourself.'

'Are you going to berth here?' asked Herrick, following the captain into
the stateroom, where he began to adjust the chronometer in its place at
the bed-head.

'Not much!' replied he. 'I guess I'll berth on deck. I don't know as I'm
afraid, but I've no immediate use for confluent smallpox.'

'I don't know that I'm afraid either,' said Herrick. 'But the thought of
these two men sticks in my throat; that captain and mate dying here, one
opposite to the other. It's grim. I wonder what they said last?'

'Wiseman and Wishart?' said the captain. 'Probably mighty small
potatoes. That's a thing a fellow figures out for himself one way, and
the real business goes quite another. Perhaps Wiseman said, "Here old
man, fetch up the gin, I'm feeling powerful rocky." And perhaps Wishart
said, "Oh, hell!"'

'Well, that's grim enough,' said Herrick.

'And so it is,' said Davis. 'There; there's that chronometer fixed. And
now it's about time to up anchor and clear out.'

He lit a cigar and stepped on deck.

'Here, you! What's YOUR name?' he cried to one of the hands, a
lean-flanked, clean-built fellow from some far western island, and of a
darkness almost approaching to the African.

'Sally Day,' replied the man.

'Devil it is,' said the captain. 'Didn't know we had ladies on board.
Well, Sally, oblige me by hauling down that rag there. I'll do the same
for you another time.' He watch