inging if it pleases
me. And if it pleases me, I'll finish that song, too."

"Not on this ship, you won't, 'less you sing it in your sleep and me not
in hearin'."

"I'll finish it on this ship, son. And it won't be in my sleep and
you'll be within hearing."

A group of deck-hands snickered, and the boson pretended to climb down
from the rigging. "You swine! What the--"

They retreated in terror. "It wasn't at you we was laffin', boson."

"Well, see that yer don't, yer cross-eyed whelps--see that yer don't."

"And do you mean to say, you collection of squashes, that you were
laughing at me?" The pump-man, still grasping a wrench in each hand,
started across the deck after them. "D'y' mean to--"

Down the gangway they retreated in a body. Noyes looked to the captain,
but the captain was looking out over the ship's side.

Noyes went down to luncheon, and after luncheon took his cigar and his
book to his room. When next he came out, he felt that something had
happened since the little adventure of the falling block. The captain
was pacing the bridge by fits and starts. The boson was leaning over the
quarter-rail. The pump-man was busy on a small job forward.

The quiet was unnatural. Noyes decided to take his constitutional on
the long gangway of the main deck. As he paced aft he saw that some of
the crew were laying the hatches on one of the tanks. He paced forward.
By the time he was aft again they were overhauling a large tarpaulin. He
watched them while they stretched it over the hatch covers. He wondered
what they were about, for the tanks of an empty oil ship are usually
left open in fine weather.

Presently he heard one of the men say to another as they stamped down
the tarpaulined hatch, "There--there's as good a prize ring as a man'd
want." And then he began to understand.

He stayed aft, while through the smoke of one long cigar he thought it
out. When he next went forward he stopped beside the pump-man, who was
cutting a thread on a section of deck-piping. "Do you mind my watching
how you do that trick?" he asked.

The pump-man looked up. "Surely not," adding after a moment, "though
there's nothing much worth watching to it."

Noyes noticed how deftly the tools were handled. Then he said, "So you
and the big fellow are going to have it out?"

"Yes, during dinner we agreed to settle it."

"But he's a notorious bruiser--liable to kill you."

"Maybe, but I don't think so. I've trimmed 'em bigger."