if you were to decide upon having the spars stepped and rigged,
the stores stowed, and the guns hoisted in before she leaves the stocks,
I should have a lot of extra trouble in calculating the proper
distribution of the weights so as to ensure her being in proper trim
when she takes to the water, and I want to avoid all that if possible."

The Greek grinned with vindictive delight as he listened to this
apparently inadvertent admission on Lance's part. It revealed to him,
as he thought, a new and unexpected method of inflicting annoyance upon
this man whom he hated so thoroughly, and his eyes fairly sparkled with
malice as he answered--

"What do you suppose I care about your extra trouble, you lazy skulking
hound? I tell you this: I will have every spar stepped, rigged, and put
in its place; the running rigging all rove; every sail bent; every gun
mounted; the magazine stowed; the stores and water all put on board; and
everything ready for the schooner to go straight out to sea from the
stocks, before she leaves them. Poole! Dickinson!"--to the two chums
who were working at no great distance--"come here and listen to what I
say. This stupid fellow--this soldier who thinks himself a sailor--says
that the schooner ought to be launched at once. _I_ say that she shall
be finished ready for sea before she leaves the stocks; and I place you,
Dickinson, in charge of the work to see that my orders are obeyed. This
fellow will no longer give any orders; he will be only a common workman;
he will obey you in future, or you will freshen his way with a rope's-
end. You understand?"

"Ay, ay," answered Dickinson, "I understands yer, Ralli, and I'll do it
too, never fear,"--with a scowl at Lance for Ralli's benefit. "Why, the
man must be a fool--a perfect fool--not to see as it'd be ever so much
easier to get things aboard now than when she's afloat. Now, you"--
turning to Lance--"you just top your boom and git away back to your work
at once, and don't let me see no more skulking or you'd better look
out."

Lance simply shrugged his shoulders, as was his habit whenever he
received any insolence from the members of the "Brotherhood," and,
turning on his heel, walked back to his work, secretly exulting in the
complete success of his manoeuvre.

Dickinson looked after him contemptuously for a moment or two, and then,
his face clouding, he remarked--

"Arter all, I wish I hadn't spoke quite so rough to him; the chap's go