y budged under the blow.

"I could not repress a slight grunt of pain, and I simply had to stop,
and rub my sore hand with the other. He saw and heard; then he came for
me, and the rest of the fight was the other way. I fought as I could,
one-handed, for I couldn't even guard with my right; but it was no use.
He soon had me going, and the last I remember of the fight was a
sickening smash under the ear. I don't remember hitting the deck; but
when I came to my senses I was laid out in the weather scuppers, and
the skipper was down off the poop, talking to Mike.

"'So,' the skipper was saying, 'you are Red Macklin, are you? I've
heard of you.' I also had heard of him; for Red Macklin's fame was
international. He was a bullying, murderous scoundrel who had perhaps
killed more sailors than any other first mate on the western ocean, and
who, about five years previous, had foolishly shot his captain. To kill
a sailor is one thing, to shoot a skipper is another.

"'Yes, sir,' answered Mike respectfully. 'I've just finished my time
for that gun play on Captain Blaine, and am not likely to repeat it.
But my prospects were done for, and I had to ship 'fore the mast.'

"'You're a navigator, of course. Bring your dunnage into the first
mate's room and take his place. Put his dunnage into the second mate's
room, and make that duffer in the scuppers bundle his traps into the
forecastle. I want no weaklings aft with me.'

"I scrambled to my feet at this; but--Well, there's no use detailing
the argument that followed. I had to go forward peaceably or lose my
prospects, like Red Macklin. And I had chosen the western ocean trade
because of what I thought my fitness for it, and because in these short
trips a man can the more quickly attract the notice of an owner. And I
understood now why Macklin had run from me when he knew I had a gun;
why he had licked his shipmates; and the reason of his studied
insolence to Mr. Parker and myself. He knew the ways of the packets,
and, while avoiding guns and irons, he sought to attract the skipper's
attention to his prowess. I thought it somewhat severe that Mr. Parker,
who had put up no kind of a fight, should be kept aft instead of me,
until I reflected that Mr. Parker, with two whole fists, might still be
good for any man on board except Macklin; while I, with only one,
couldn't lick anybody. It was merely the survival of the fittest, and I
was not fit.

"However, I drew comfort from the thou