o sat there in the shadow, squatting on legs which trembled.

This babbler--tongue loosened by his new liberty and by the antagonism
his small nature was developing, anticipating his employer's enmity--had
dropped a word of what Mayo knew must be the truth. It had been a
trick--and Fletcher Fogg had worked it! Mayo did not know who Fletcher
Fogg's employer might be. From what office this tattler came he did not
know; but it was evident that Bradish was cognizant of the trick. As
a result of that trick, an honest man had been ruined and blacklisted,
deprived of opportunity to work in his profession, was a fugitive, a
despised sailor, kicked to the Very bottom of the ladder he had climbed
so patiently and honorably.

Furious passion bowled over Mayo's prudence. He leaped down from the top
of the house and presented himself in front of the two men.

"I heard it--I couldn't help hearing it!" he stuttered.

"Here's a nigger gone crazy!" yelped Captain Downs. "Ahoy, there,
for'ard! Tumble aft with a rope!"

"I'm no nigger, and I'm not crazy!" shouted Mayo.

The swinging lantern in the companionway lighted him dimly. But in the
gloom his dusky hue was only the more accentuated. His excitement seemed
that of a man whose wits had been touched.

"I knew it was a trick. But what was the trick?" he demanded, starting
toward Bradish, his clutching hands outspread.

Captain Downs kicked at this obstreperous sailor, and at the same time
fanned a blow at his head with open palm.

Mayo avoided both the foot and the hand. "What does the law say about
striking a sailor, captain? Hold on, there! I'm just as good a man as
you are. Don't you tell those men to lay hands on me." He backed away
from the sailors who came running aft, with the second mate marshaling
them. He stripped up his sleeve and held his arm across the radiance of
the binnacle light. "That's a white man's skin, isn't it?" he demanded.

"What kind of play-acting is all this?" asked Old Mull, with astonished
indignation.

In that crisis Mayo controlled his tongue after a mighty effort to
steady himself. He was prompted to obey his mood and announce his
identity with all the fury that was in him. But here stood the man who
had served as one of the tools of his enemies, whoever they were. For
his weapon against this man Mayo had only a few words of gossip which
had been dropped in an unwary moment; he realized his position; he
regretted his passionate haste. He was