the ship were visited at all hours, and the
comings and goings of the tempters were not even checked by the Mate.
The dinner hour was the most opportune time for them, for then they had
the miserable meal to point to in scorn.

"Call yewrselves min," they said, "a sittin' hyar at yer lobscouse an'
dawg biscuits, an' forty dallars a month jest waitin' t' be picked up?
... Forty dallars ... an' no more graft 'n a boy kin dew! Darn it, I
wouldn't give that mess to me dawg! ... A fine lot yees are, fer sure!
Ain't got no heart t' strike aout f'r decent grub 'n a soft job....
Forty dallars, I guess! ... Is thar a 'man' among ye? ... Chip in
yewr dunnage an' step ashore, me bucks! A soft job in a free country,
an' no damn lime juice Mate t' sweat ye araound!"

The 'spell worked'! Within a fortnight of our arrival most of the men
who had signed with us had, '_Deserted. Left no effects_,' entered
against their names in our official Log. Soon the whalers were at sea,
standing to the north, and Dutch John shorn of his proud position, was
shipped as cook on a hard-case New Yorker!

The bos'un and Old Martin were still with us, and we had Welsh John and
Houston safe in the hospital--about the only place in 'Frisco where no
healthy 'crimp' could gain admission. For want of better game,
perhaps, the boarding-masters paid some attention to the half-deck, but
we had, in the Chaplain of the British Seamen's Institute, a muscular
mentor to guide us aright. From the first he had won our hearts by his
ability to put Browne (our fancy man) under the ropes in three rounds.
It was said that, in the absence of a better argument, he was able and
willing to turn his sleeves up to the stiffest 'crimp' on the Front.
Be that as it may, there was no doubt about his influence with
brassbounders in the port. Desertions among us--that had formerly been
frequent--were rare enough when James Fell came, swinging his stick, to
see what was doing on the Front!

With the crew gone, we found matters improved with us. The Mate,
having no 'crowd' to rush around, was inclined to take things easy,
and, when sober, was quite decent. Although but a few weeks in the
country, we were now imbued with the spirit of freedom; learned to
'guess' and 'reckon'; called Tuesday 'Toosday'; and said "No, sir-rr!"
when emphatic denial was called for. Eccles even tried the democratic
experiment of omitting his "sir" when answering the Mate. Disastrous
result!