is statement coldly and
deliberately.

"This ship's not too dangerous for me, and I choose to judge. And if
she'll do for me, she's good enough for the crew I've got in your boat.
Now I want them on deck, and at work without any more palaver."

"Do you, by God!" said the mate, and then the pair of them closed
without any further preliminaries. They were both of them well used to
quick rough-and-tumbles, and they both of them knew that the man who
gets the first grip in these wrestles usually wins, and instinctively
each tried to act on that knowledge.

But if the third mate had bulk and strength, Kettle had science and
abundant wiriness; and though the pair of them lost their footing on the
sloping cabin floor at the first embrace, and wriggled over and under
like a pair of eels, Captain Kettle got a thumb artistically fixed in
the bigger man's windpipe, and held it there doggedly. The mate, growing
more and more purple, hit out with savage force, but Kettle dodged the
bull-like blows like the boxer he was, and the mate's efforts
gradually relaxed.

But at this point they were interrupted. "That wobbly boat was making me
sea-sick," said a voice, "so I came on board here. Hullo, you fellows!"

Kettle looked up. "Mr. Philipps," he said, "I wish you'd go and get the
rest of our crew on deck out of the boat."

"But what are you two doing down there?"

"We disagreed over a question of judgment. He said this ship isn't safe,
and I shouldn't have the chance to take her home. I say there's nothing
wrong with her that can't be remedied, and home I'm going to take her,
anyway. It might be the one chance in my life, sir, of getting a balance
at the bank, and I'm not going to miss it."

"Ho!" said Dayton-Philipps.

"If you don't like to come, you needn't," said Kettle. "But I'm going to
have the stonemason and the Dago, and those two coal-heavers. Perhaps
you'd better go back. It will be wet, hard work here; no way the sort of
job to suit a soldier."

Dayton-Philipps flushed slightly, and then he laughed. "I suppose that's
intended to be nasty," he said. "Well, Captain, I shall have to prove to
you that we soldiers are equal to a bit of manual labor sometimes. By
the way, I don't want to interfere in a personal matter, but I'd take it
as a favor if you wouldn't kill Strake quite. I rather like him."

"Anything to oblige," said Kettle, and took his thumb out of the third
mate's windpipe. "And now, sir, as you've so to s