THERE WAS A DEAL OF CURSING and groaning as the men at the bottom of the ladder crawled to their feet.

 'Somebody strike a light; my thumb's out of joint,' said one of the men, Parsons, a swarthy, saturnine man, steerer in Standish's boat, in which Harrison was puller.

 'You'll find it knockin' about by the bitts,' Leach said, sitting down on the edge of the bunk in which I was concealed.

 There was a fumbling and a scratching of matches, and the sea-lamp flared up, dim and smoky, and in its weird light bare-legged men moved about, nursing their bruises and caring for their hurts. Oofty-Oofty laid hold of Parsons' thumb, pulling it out stoutly and snapping it back into place. I noticed at the same time that the Kanaka's knuckles were laid open clear across and to the bone. Exposing his beautiful white teeth in a grin, he explained that the wounds had come from striking Wolf Larsen in the mouth.

 'So it was you, was it, you black beggar?' belligerently demanded Kelly, an Irish-American and a longshoreman making his first trip, and puller for Kerfoot.

 As he made the demand he shoved his pugnacious face close to Oofty-oofty. The Kanaka leaped backward to his bunk, to return with a leap, flourishing a long knife.

 'Aw, go lay down; you make me tired,' Leach interfered. He was evidently, for all of his youth and inexperience, cock of the forecastle. 'G'wan, you Kelly. You leave Oofty alone. How in- did he know it was you in the dark?'

 Kelly subsided with some muttering, and the Kanaka flashed his white teeth in a grateful smile. He was a beautiful creature, almost feminine in the pleasing lines of his figure, and there was a softness and dreaminess in his large eyes which seemed to contradict his reputation for strife and action.

 'How did he get away?' said Johnson.

 He was sitting on the side of his bunk, the whole pose of his figure indicating utter dejection and hopelessness. He was still breathing heavily from the exertion he had made. His shirt had been ripped entirely from him in the struggle.

 'Because he is the devil, as I told you before,' was Leach's answer, and thereat he was on his feet and raging his disappointment with tears in his eyes.

 'And not one of you to get a knife!' was his unceasing lament.

 But the rest had a lively fear of consequences, and gave no heed to him.

 'How'll he know which was which?' Kelly asked, and as he went on he looked murderously about him- 'unless one of us peaches.'

 'He'll know as soon as ever he claps eyes on us,' Parsons replied. 'One look at you'd be enough.'

 'Tell him the deck flopped up an' gouged yer teeth out iv yer jaw,' Louis grinned. He was the only man who was not out of his bunk, and he was jubilant in that he possessed no bruises to advertise that he had had a hand in the night's work. 'Just wait till he gets a glimpse iv yer mugs tomorrow- the gang iv ye,' he chuckled.

 'We'll say we thought it was the mate,' said one. And another: 'I know what I'll say- that I heared a row, jumped out of my bunk, got a jolly good crack on the jaw for my pains, an' sailed in myself. Couldn't tell who or what it was in the dark an' just hit out.'

 'An' 't was me you hit, of course,' Kelly seconded, his face brightening.

 Leach and Johnson took no part in the discussion, and it was plain to see that their mates looked upon them as men for whom the worst was inevitable, who were beyond hope and already dead. Leach stood their fears and reproaches for some time. Then he broke out:

 'You make me tired! A nice lot of gazabas you are! If you talked less with yer mouth an' did something with yer hands, he'd 'a' be'n done with by now. Why couldn't one of you, just one of you, get me a knife when I sung out? You make me sick! A-beefin' an' bellerin' round as though he'd kill you when he gets you! You know he won't. Can't afford to. No shippin'-masters or beachcombers over here, an' he wants yer in his business, an' he wants yer bad. Who's to pull or steer or sail ship if he loses yer? It's me an' Johnson have to face the music. Get into yer bunks, now, and shut yer faces; I want to get some sleep.'

 'That's all right, all right,' Parsons spoke up. 'Mebbe he won't do for us, but mark my words, hell'll be an ice-box to this ship from now on.'

 All the while I had been apprehensive. What would happen to me when these men discovered my presence? I could never fight my way out as Wolf Larsen had done. And at this moment Latimer called down the scuttle:

 'Hump, the Old Man wants you.'

 'He ain't down here!' said Parsons.

 'Yes, he is,' I said, sliding out of the bunk and striving my hardest to keep my voice steady and bold.

 The sailors looked at me in consternation. Fear was strong in their faces, and the devilishness which comes of fear.

 'I'm coming!' I shouted up to Latimer.

 'No, you don't!' Kelly cried, stepping between me and t............