The Blood Ship

in full possession of my faculties. Even in the brief instant be

d me, boomed commands, stormed curses, groans, sounds of blows, feet stamping-

ugged siesta. Now it was broad day, and a bright streak of sunlight streaming into th

h contained a connecting door. Newman and I had stumbled into the port foc'sle the previous night, and as I sat up, I discovered that the babel o

her ungentle. His long arm would dart into a bunk where lay huddled a formless heap of rags. This heap of rags, yanked bodily out of bed, would resolve itself into a limp and drunk

dences of life. Then Lynch would take firm grasp of the scruff of the neck and seat of the breeches, and hurl the resurrected one through the door onto the deck, and out of range of my vision. A waspish voice streaming blistering oaths proved that Mister Fitzgibbon was wel

ds; then he paused a moment for a breathing spell. Next, his roving e

me to life, have you!"

would be dead u

e, and looked about. I leaped down from the upper bunk and stood b

who came aboard with you?"

ly, indicating the bunk opposi

as not in any bunk. He was gone, though his sea-bag was still lying on the floor. The bunk I thought

ed flannel shirt, was stretched out upon the bare bunk-bo

. It was white and soft. Obviously, he was no inhabitant of the underworld of forecastles and

ted, of his swoon, and stertorous breathing. Dried blood was plastered on the boards abo

he fellow's loosely clenched hands. It

tricks. Well-we'll make a sailor of him before we fetch China Sea, I reckon!" He straighten

I could have sworn Newman had turn

he's feeding fishes now!" His eyes roved around the room. Several of the bunks were occupied by nondescript figures, but New

es. The body of a big man lying therein loomed indistinctly in the gloom o

de had tendered the runner's job, the man Newman had manhandled! He lay

runner," I said. "The

him the job

n he grasped the significance of the Swede's double cross, and his laughter jo

elf with unseemly levity in company with a foremast hand. His fac

are you standing about for? Get ou

alacrity. As I reached the door, hi

doesn't get ahead of me. Got your nerve-shipping in this packet! If you kno