peculative gleam in
my tormentor's eyes. It was the mere shadow of an expression, but it
acted like cold water upon my hot thoughts. I divined, suddenly, that
something more than sport was behind the captain's insults. He wanted me
to blow up in a great rage, and attack him, or the mate. I suddenly knew
this was so, and the danger of my losing my temper was past.

I lowered my eyes, afraid their expression would betray my knowledge, and
said submissively, "Yes, sir, I guess so, sir."

"I was told you had a long tongue, but you do not seem very glib this
minute," Captain Swope went on. "You've taken a reef in it, _eh_,
Shreve?"

I said, "Yes, sir."

"But you forgot to take a reef in it awhile back, didn't you?"

I knew he was referring to the shout that warned Newman. I did not
venture a reply.

"So now you have put your tongue in gaskets," he commented, after a
pause. "Too bad you didn't do it before. A long tongue is a very bad
habit, my lad, and I do not allow my hands to have bad habits. I correct
them--so!"

He struck me then, not a heavy, stunning blow, but a short-armed,
slashing uppercut, which ripped the flesh of my cheek, and sent me
stumbling backwards against the mate's body. I took that blow meekly, I
took Fitzgibbon's harder blow meekly. I stood there and let the two of
them pummel me, and knock me down and kick me, and I made no show of
resistance. I buried my head in my arms, and drew up my knees, and let
them work their will on me.

Oh, it was a cruel dressing down they gave me! My face became raw meat,
my body a mass of shooting pains. I took it meekly. I tried to guard my
vitals, and my addled, star-riddled wits clung to the one idea--"I must
not lose my temper!"

I took my medicine. I did not lift a hand against them. I grovelled on
the deck like a cur, and did not fight back.

It was hard to behave like that. It was the hardest thing I had ever
done--keeping my temper, and taking that beating without show of
resistance. I was a fighting animal; never before in my life had I
tamely turned the other cheek. Long afterwards I came to realize that
those few moments, during which I lay on the deck and felt their boots
thud into my flesh, were educative moments of vital importance in my
growth into manhood. I was learning self-control; it was being literally
kicked into me. It was a lesson I needed, no doubt--but, oh, it was a
bitter, bitter lesson.

They gave over their