s head backward, while the Finn's left knee
ground into the small of his back. He was held as in a vise, helpless,
and Kjellin spoke:

"Ven I get fresh young faler like you, an' he quit me cold, I lick him
after I pay him off."

"I see," Matt replied calmly. "That makes it a plain case of assault and
battery, whereas if you lick him before you pay him off, he can sue your
owners. You're a fine, smart squarehead!"

"You bet!" Kjellin answered, and struck him a stunning blow behind
the ear. Matt, realizing his inability to wriggle out of the captain's
grasp, kicked backward with his right foot and caught the Finn squarely
on the right shin, splintering the bone. The captain cried out with
the pain of it and released the pressure on Matt's chin, whereupon the
latter whirled, picked the Finn up bodily, and threw him through the
stateroom door out onto the deck, where he struck the pipe railing and
rebounded. He lay where he fell, and when Matt's brain cleared and he
came out on deck the captain was moaning.

"Get up, you brute!" Matt ordered. "You got the wrong pig by the ear
that time."

"My leg ban broken," Kjellin whimpered.

"I wish it was your neck," Matt replied with feeling, and bent over to
examine his fallen foe. When he grasped Kjellin by the right shoulder,
however, the Finn screamed with pain, so Matt called the steward, and
together they lifted him and carried him to his berth.

"I'll bet a cooky you're a total loss and no accident insurance," Matt
soliloquized. "You're not worth it, but for the sake of the owners I'll
get a doctor to look you over," and he went ashore at once. When the
doctor had looked Thorwald Kjellin over his verdict was a broken tibia,
a broken radius and a broken clavicle.

Matt was concerned. "I don't think I ever had any of those things to get
broken," he declared humorously, "but if mere words mean anything I'll
bet this is a hospital job." The doctor nodded, and Matt turned to
the captain: "Do you want to go to the hospital in Eureka or in San
Francisco?"

"I ban vant to go home," the Finn moaned.

"Very well, captain; I guess your successor will bring you there. I'm
going up to the mill office now to report to the owners by telephone."

"Dot ban't none o' your business, Peasley," Kjellin protested. "Dot is
der first mate's job. You ban fired."

"Yes, I know. Now I'm back-firing," Matt retorted.

Fifteen minutes later he had Cappy Ricks on the long-distance telephone.