st.

"Well," he said, "you're a funny enough looking beachcomber. What do you
want, anyway?"

Captain Kettle felt himself to redden all over under the tan of his
skin. Neatness in clothes was always a strong point with him, and he
resented the barbarism of his present get-up acutely. "If I wanted a job
at teaching manners, I could find one in your boat, that's certain," was
his prompt retort. "And when I'd finished with that, I could give some
of you a lesson in pluck without much harm being done. I wonder if you
call yourselves white men to let a crowd of niggers clear you out of
your ship like that?"

"Now, look here, Robinson Crusoe," said the man at the steering oar,
"our tempers are all filed up on the raw edge just now, and if you give
much lip, this boat will be rowed over the top of your Noah's ark before
you know what's hit it. You paddle back to your squaw and piccaninnies
on the beach, Robinson, and don't you come out here to mock your betters
when they're down on their luck. We've nothing to give you except ugly
words, and you'll get them cheap."

"Well, Mr. Mate," said Kettle, "I haven't heard white man's English for
a year, but if you can teach me anything new, I'm here to learn. I've
come across most kinds of failure in my time, but a white man who lets
himself be kicked off his ship by a parcel of Krooboys, and who
disgraces Great Britain by being a blooming Englishman, is a specimen
that's new to me. But perhaps I'm making a mistake? Perhaps you're a
Dutchman or a Dago that's learnt the language? Or perhaps, to judge from
that cauliflower nose of yours, you're something that's escaped out of a
freak museum? You haven't a photo about you by any chance? I'd like to
send one home to South Shields. My Missis is a great hand at collecting
curiosities which you only see in foreign parts."

The mate bent on the steering gear with sudden violence, turned the
lifeboat's head with a swirl, and began sculling her toward the canoe.
But a tall, thin man sitting beside him in the stern-sheets said
something to him in an undertone, and the Mate reluctantly let the oar
drag limp in the water, and sat himself down, and ostentatiously made
ready to roll a cigarette.

"Now, look here," said the tall man, "I don't suppose you want to
quarrel."

"I've been in quarrels before for the sheer fun of the thing," said
Kettle, who was determined that at any rate no apology should come
from his side.

"So have I," said t