, looking at him fiercely. Donkin stepped back
opening wide eyes. "Go, you blackguard, or I will make you," cried the
master, driving him slowly backwards by a menacing advance. He dodged,
and with the dangerous iron tried to guard his head from a threatening
fist. Mr. Baker ceased grunting for a moment.--"Good! By Jove," murmured
appreciatively Mr. Creighton in the tone of a connoisseur.--"Don't tech
me," snarled Donkin, backing away.--"Then go. Go faster."--"Don't yer 'it
me.... I will pull yer up afore the magistryt.... I'll show yer up."
Captain Allistoun made a long stride, and Donkin, turning his back
fairly, ran off a little, then stopped and over his shoulder showed
yellow teeth.--"Further on, fore-rigging," urged the master, pointing
with his arm.--"Are yer goin' to stand by and see me bullied?" screamed
Donkin at the silent crowd that watched him. Captain Allistoun walked
at him smartly. He started off again with a leap, dashed at the
fore-rigging, rammed the pin into its hole violently. "I'll be even
with yer yet," he screamed at the ship at large and vanished beyond
the foremast. Captain Allistoun spun round and walked back aft with a
composed face, as though he had already forgotten the scene. Men moved
out of his way. He looked at no one.--"That will do, Mr. Baker. Send the
watch below," he said, quietly. "And you men try to walk straight for
the future," he added in a calm voice. He looked pensively for a
while at the backs of the impressed and retreating crowd. "Breakfast,
steward," he called in a tone of relief through the cabin door.--"I
didn't like to see you--Ough!--give that pin to that chap, sir," observed
Mr. Baker; "he could have bust--Ough!--bust your head like an eggshell
with it."--"O! he!" muttered the master, absently. "Queer lot," he went
on in a low voice. "I suppose it's all right now. Can never tell tho'
nowadays, with such a... Years ago; I was a young master then--one China
voyage I had a mutiny; real mutiny, Baker. Different men tho'. I knew
what they wanted: they wanted to broach the cargo and get at the liquor.
Very simple.... We knocked them about for two days, and when they had
enough--gentle as lambs. Good crew. And a smart trip I made." He glanced
aloft at the yards braced sharp up. "Head wind day after day,"
he exclaimed, bitterly. "Shall we never get a decent slant this
passage?"--"Ready, sir," said the steward, appearing before them as if by
magic and with a stained napkin in h