id oil. Her crew were Chinamen; there was no mate.
But the cook--himself a Chinaman--who appeared from time to time at the
door of the galley, a potato-masher in his hand, seemed to have some
sort of authority over the hands. He acted in a manner as a go-between
for the Captain and the crew, sometimes interpreting the former's
orders, and occasionally giving one of his own.

Wilbur heard the Captain address him as Charlie. He spoke pigeon English
fairly. Of the balance of the crew--the five Chinamen--Wilbur could make
nothing. They never spoke, neither to Captain Kitchell, to Charlie,
nor to each other; and for all the notice they took of Wilbur he might
easily have been a sack of sand. Wilbur felt that his advent on the
"Bertha Millner" was by its very nature an extraordinary event; but the
absolute indifference of these brown-suited Mongols, the blankness of
their flat, fat faces, the dulness of their slanting, fishlike eyes
that never met his own or even wandered in his direction, was uncanny,
disquieting. In what strange venture was he now to be involved, toward
what unknown vortex was this new current setting, this current that had
so suddenly snatched him from the solid ground of his accustomed life?

He told himself grimly that he was to have a free cruise up the bay,
perhaps as far as Alviso; perhaps the "Bertha Millner" would even make
the circuit of the bay before returning to San Francisco. He might
be gone a week. Wilbur could already see the scare-heads of the daily
papers the next morning, chronicling the disappearance of "One of
Society's Most Popular Members."

"That's well, y'r throat halyards. Here, Lilee of the Vallee, give a
couple of pulls on y'r peak halyard purchase."

Wilbur stared at the Captain helplessly.

"No can tell, hey?" inquired Charlie from the galley. "Pullum disa lope,
sabe?"

Wilbur tugged at the rope the cook indicated.

"That's well, y'r peak halyard purchase," chanted Captain Kitchell.

Wilbur made the rope fast. The mainsail was set, and hung slatting and
flapping in the wind. Next the for'sail was set in much the same manner,
and Wilbur was ordered to "lay out on the ji'boom and cast the gaskets
off the jib." He "lay out" as best he could and cast off the gaskets--he
knew barely enough of yachting to understand an order here and
there--and by the time he was back on the fo'c'sle head the Chinamen
were at the jib halyard and hoisting away.

"That's well, y'r jib halyard