The Blood Ship

luck, the Swede, the ship and the officers. But Newman did not curse, nor did we expect him to. We sensed that he was glad he was at sea in the Golden Bough, that he was there f

not look to him to lead the watch. We felt he was not one of us. H

ven for in most ships, decided only after combat between the fighting men of the crew. But the Golden Bough had an extraordinary crew. The majority of the men in my watch were just stiffs, who possessed neither the experie

f it, my last ship I had been ordered about by the foc'sle cock. I had gone to the galley at command and fetched the watch's food. Now, scant days after, I, a fledgling able seaman, was lording it over the f

atest thing that happened to me since birth. This little savage authority I commenced to exercise over my companions by virtue of the threat of my fists, was my first taste of power. It awa

watch I could not handle in either a rough-and-tumble or stand-up go, I thought, with the exception of Newman. He would not interfere with me-his interest lay aft, in the cabin, not in the foc'sle. In the port watch were two fighting men, my eyes had told me, the Cockney a

airly size them up, and I afterwards discovered that my first impr

n to sailors as "stiffs." This is, they were greenhorns masquerading on the articles as able seamen. And such stiffs! The

new not a dozen words of English between them. The other nine were stiffs, various kinds of stif

re not to be classed as weaklings. I noticed them particularly that first watch below because they sat apart

have cared to run afoul of them on the Barbary Coast after midnight. I already knew the names they called each other-the only names I ever knew them by-"Boston," for t

e got up from the bench and crossed over to Newman's bunk. The latter was lying with his face to

wly turned his head and faced the man who leaned over him. On his face was the same

eside his mate. Then Newman spoke in low, measured tones, and at the first word the ba

" The great scar on his forehead was blue and twitching, and his voice was deadly earnest. He did a thing so expressive it made me shudder. He lifted his hand, and care

n his seat, and cleared his throat as though about to speak. But, at the instant, Lynch's boomin

But I heard Fitzgibbon without, as well as Lynch, and, from the gossip I had heard at the Swede's, I suspected the foc'sle was about to be introduced to the orthodox hell-ship m

d another the honor of bei

man's disturbing gaze; anyhow, at the second mate's first summons, he bounded from the bench,

siness. He met Blackie's egress with a careless jab of his fist that up-ended

ould aim a blow at me, and started to obey the command to lay aft.

at Lynch. In the light cast by Mister Fitz's lantern, I saw the gleam of a knife blade in Blackie's hand. I

ll teach you!" said Lynch, and he commenced to shower blows upon the man. Blackie screamed curses, and fought back futilely. Lynch commented in a monotone with each of his thudding blows,

ing, too, with the mat