they're busy? Come in and have a drink with
us, youngster, just to show that you're not stuck up. I guess we're all
equals in this dandy little barkie; yes, sirree! I'm a free-born
'Murican, I am, an' just as good as you or any other blamed Britisher,
and don' you forget it. So, if you won' come in an' have a drink, take
your ugly-lookin' mug out o' the daylight, d'ye hear?"

To emphasise this polite request the man seized a heavy sea boot from
the forecastle deck and hove it at me, with so poor an aim that instead
of hitting me he dashed it into the face of an Englishman who happened
at the moment to be drinking rum out of a pannikin. The blow dashed the
pannikin out of the man's hand, and splashed the fiery spirit all over
his face and into his eyes; and the next instant, with a low, fierce
growl of concentrated ferocity, he sprang to his feet and struck the
free-born 'Murican a smashing blow under the chin that sent him
sprawling.

"You have no time to waste in fighting, lads," I cried, for I felt that
the ship was fast settling under our feet. But my voice was completely
drowned in the babel of angry yells that instantly arose, for it
appeared that the men were, after their own fashion, rivals for
leadership in the forecastle, and each man had his own partisans, every
one of whom instantly took up the quarrel of his own favourite, and in
another moment the whole of them were at each others' throats, like so
many quarrelsome dogs.

"Let the drunken, mutinous brutes fight it out among themselves," I
muttered disgustedly as I turned and walked away. "They will get a
sobering-up before very long that will astonish them, or I am greatly
mistaken!"

As I walked aft I could tell, by the feel of the ship, that her race was
nearly run--although I did not at that moment dream how very near to her
end she was--and I paused abreast of the longboat to satisfy myself that
she was quite ready for launching out through the wide gap that we had
made in the bulwarks when cutting them away to provide material for the
construction of the raft. The gripes, I saw, had been cast off, and the
boat was supported solely by her chocks, upon which she stood upright on
the main hatchway. Suddenly, stooping down, a small spot of bright
light in the deep shadow under the boat caught my eye, and looking
closer I saw that some careless rascal had omitted to put in the plug,
and that the bright spot of light was caused by the sun shini