an John seemed astounded.

"Oh, I reckon," he said, "we'll pay 'em hard cash with a clout on the
skull, cap'n; come right along, boys, and bring your shootin' irons.
Oh, I guess we'll pay 'em, money down, and men a-top of it."

"You'll do nothing of the sort, you lubber!" roared Black; "but what
you take you'll pay for, d'ye hear me?--then shut your mouth up and go
aboard."

John was not the only man who was struck by the skipper's whim. There
were mutterings on the deck below, and Dick, who had come from the
conning-tower, was bold enough to make remark.

"It's a'most sinfu'," he said, "to be sae free wi' the siller; why man,
ye could verra weel buy me a hundred pairs o' breeks wi' the same, and
no be wanting it."

But Black was watching the launch, now speeding in the moonlight
towards the rolling whaler. I watched it too, remembering how, not many
weeks before, I had stood on the deck of my own yacht, and awaited the
coming of the same craft with my heart in my mouth. Now the danger was
not mine, but I felt for the men who had to face it, since Black's talk
about purchase could scarcely soften the native ferocity of those who
served him; and I feared that the scene would end in bloodshed.

Happily the surmise was quite incorrect. That which promised a tragedy
gave us but a comedy. We saw from the platform that our men were taken
aboard the ship, and we watched to see them hoist their barrels after
them. But they did not, making no sign of having the oil, although
there came shouts and sounds of altercation from the anchored vessel;
and we saw the flash of pistols, and dark objects presently in the sea.
To the surprise of us all, the launch returned after that; and when our
men came aboard, they presented a shocking spectacle. "Roaring John"
was covered from head to feet with a thick, black, oleaginous matter;
two of the others had their faces smeared in tar; the rest were like
drowned rats, and were chattering until their teeth clashed with the
cold. Nor could they for some time, what with their spluttering and
their anger, tell us what misfortune had overtaken them.

"The darned empty skunks," gasped John at last--"they haven't got a
barrel aboard, not a barrel, I guess; and when I gave 'em play with my
tongue, they put me in the waste-tub--oh, I reckon, up to my eyes in
it----"

"Do you mean to say," asked Black, "that they've took no whales?"

"Except ourselves, yer honour," said a little Englishman, who