ething in the corner of an oil ship's tank, and the coroner couldn't
tell the buttons of one from the other. Gas, yes. Another half minute
and these chaps would've got the surprise of their lives. But maybe I'd
better go for'ard and give 'em a few chemical explanations, or some
day, meaning no harm, they'll be blowing out the side of the ship. So
long."

III

The pump-man roomed with Jenkins, the third officer, in the
superstructure, amidships. The passenger sometimes, as on this night,
looked in there.

Jenkins was an Englishman, and of him they told the story that when he
first came to the country half the space in his yellow tin trunk was
taken up with cakes of Pears' soap. Somebody had told him that he
couldn't buy any in the United States. He still had some of his original
load of soap, and now hauled the tin trunk out from under his bunk, took
out a cake and made a lather, with which he slicked down his thin, sandy
hair, smoothing it, the while he gossiped cheerfully with Kieran and the
passenger, on each side of the middle parting until it made a straight
line between the bottom of his ears to his eyebrows. His ears were stuck
high up on the side of his head--a sign of high intelligence, he used to
say.

Jenkins had to go on watch at midnight, and so now he was getting ready
to turn in. The third officer had a minute way of telling his little
experiences, to which Kieran always listened patiently. If Kieran had
not, Jenkins would have had no audience at all, for the second officer,
a Norwegian, and the first officer, a Vermont Yankee, had no use for any
Englishman whatever; and besides that he was only the third officer.

The pump-man had sympathy for Jenkins, but not so much that he would sit
and listen while Jenkins talked himself to sleep; so, once he saw
Jenkins into his bunk, Kieran used to fly for the open deck.

And here it was the passenger joined him, pacing the long gangway. The
passenger turned and they paced together.

The sound of the captain's voice floated down from the bridge. The
passenger, who had small use for the captain, suggested that they go
forward; and so they made for the bow of the ship and ascended the
ladder to the forec's'le head, and here, after a decent interval, to
allow Kieran to absorb the beauty of the tropic night, the passenger
said, "How about that bull-fight in Peru?"

"Oh-h--" said Kieran, and after a silence went on to say:

"Well, the day of the bull-fight c