g reached, the mate drove
him to the wheel, to steer one-handed through the day, while all hands
(in the afternoon) worked in the rigging. But the trade-wind freshened,
and his strength was not equal to the task set for it. With the men all
aloft and the two mates forward, the ship nearly broached to one day,
and only the opportune arrival of Captain Bacon on deck saved the
spars. He seized the wheel, ground it up, and the ship paid off; then a
whole man was called to relieve him, and the incompetent helmsman was
promptly and properly punished. He was kicked off the poop, and his
arm, as a consequence, needed resetting.

Johnson had been aloft, but there was murder in his dark eyes when he
came down at supper-time. Yet he knew its futility, and while bandaging
the broken arm earnestly explained, as Breen's groans would allow, that
if he killed one the other two would kill him, and nothing would be
gained. "For they've brass knuckles in their pockets, sir," he said,
"and pistols under their pillows. We haven't even sheath-knives, and
the crew wouldn't help."

Whereupon, an inspired Russian Finn of the watch remarked: "If a man
know his work an' do his work, an' gif no back lip to te mates, he get
no trupple mit te mates. In my country ships----" The dissertation was
not finished. Johnson silently knocked him down, and the incident
closed.

But they found work which the crippled man could do, after a short
"lying up." With the steward's washboard, he could wash the captain's
soiled linen, which the steward would afterward wring out and hang up.
He refused at first, but was duly persuaded, and went to work in the
lee scuppers amidships. Johnson made a detour on his way to the
main-rigging, and muttered: "Say the word, sir, and I 'll chance it. No
jury'd convict."

"No, no; go aloft, Johnson. I'm all right," answered Breen, as he bent
over the distasteful task.

Johnson climbed the rigging to the main-royalyard, which he was to
scrape for reoiling, and had no sooner reached it than he sang out:

"Sail oh! Dead ahead, sir. Looks like an armored cruiser o' the first
class."

"Armored cruiser o' the first class?" muttered the captain, as he
carried his binoculars to the weather rail and looked ahead. "More 'n I
can make out with the glasses."

If three funnels, two masts, two bridges, and two sets of fighting-tops
indicate an armored cruiser of the first class, Johnson was right.
These the oncoming craft showed plai