's the boy that chases the whale, and leaps
high out of the water, and snaps his long, limber tail, and bam! down he
comes on that big slob of a whale and breaks his back. All the wise old
whales, they take to deep water when they see a thrasher hunting
trouble. It's the foolish young whales that don't know enough to let the
thrasher alone."

Noyes noted that the crew laughed more loudly at the bosun's rough jeers
than at the more sharply pointed comment of the pump-man. But looking
them over, he began to understand; these men were nearer to the bosun's
type than the pump-man's. And also, no crew could long remain ignorant
of which it was the captain favored. If the pump-man won, they would
benefit by it, whether they were with him or no--some selfish instinct
in them taught them that; while if the bosun were to win (and who could
doubt that, looking at the two men?), why, 'twould be just as well to
fly their colors early.

Yet there were those who favored the game-looking pump-man. Two or three
had the courage to say so. It was these who cried out to give him fair
play when some ten or a dozen were for rushing him off the hatch before
the fight had begun at all.

Kieran thanked these with a grateful look. "That's all I want--fair
play. Keep off the hatch and give us room to move around in."

And yet it did seem for a moment as if the pump-man was to get no fair
play, as if the bosun's adherents would overwhelm him as he stood there
on the hatch. And Noyes experienced an unpleasant chill and began to
appreciate the nerve of this man who defied a crowd of alien spirits
aboard a strange ship. It was more than physical courage, and when they
were making ugly demonstrations toward the pump-man it was in pure
admiration of his nerve that Noyes called out: "Hold up--fair play! Fair
play, I say--he's only one."

Coming from the passenger, it was the psychological act at the
psychological moment. They drew back, and Kieran, looking up, put his
thanks in his look.

The two men faced each other. Kieran eyed the other critically. Up and
down, from toe to crown, he estimated his bulk; and then, taking a step
to one side, he eyed him once more, as if to get the exact depth of him.

"Well," said the bosun, and harking to his rising voice, his growling
adherents simmered to silence, "now yer've seen me, what d'yer think?"

"I've seen 'em just as big, hulks of full your length and beam and
draught, and in a breeze I've seen ve