tting of sails; but the sailors took
pains to put me to rights,--Louis proving an especially good
teacher,--and I had little trouble with those under me.

With the hunters it was otherwise. Familiar in varying degree with the
sea, they took me as a sort of joke. In truth, it was a joke to me, that
I, the veriest landsman, should be filling the office of mate; but to be
taken as a joke by others was a different matter. I made no complaint,
but Wolf Larsen demanded the most punctilious sea etiquette in my
case,--far more than poor Johansen had ever received; and at the expense
of several rows, threats, and much grumbling, he brought the hunters to
time. I was "Mr. Van Weyden" fore and aft, and it was only unofficially
that Wolf Larsen himself ever addressed me as "Hump."

It was amusing. Perhaps the wind would haul a few points while we were
at dinner, and as I left the table he would say, "Mr. Van Weyden, will
you kindly put about on the port tack." And I would go on deck, beckon
Louis to me, and learn from him what was to be done. Then, a few minutes
later, having digested his instructions and thoroughly mastered the
manoeuvre, I would proceed to issue my orders. I remember an early
instance of this kind, when Wolf Larsen appeared on the scene just as I
had begun to give orders. He smoked his cigar and looked on quietly till
the thing was accomplished, and then paced aft by my side along the
weather poop.

"Hump," he said, "I beg pardon, Mr. Van Weyden, I congratulate you. I
think you can now fire your father's legs back into the grave to him.
You've discovered your own and learned to stand on them. A little
rope-work, sail-making, and experience with storms and such things, and
by the end of the voyage you could ship on any coasting schooner."

It was during this period, between the death of Johansen and the arrival
on the sealing grounds, that I passed my pleasantest hours on the
_Ghost_. Wolf Larsen was quite considerate, the sailors helped me, and I
was no longer in irritating contact with Thomas Mugridge. And I make
free to say, as the days went by, that I found I was taking a certain
secret pride in myself. Fantastic as the situation was,--a land-lubber
second in command,--I was, nevertheless, carrying it off well; and during
that brief time I was proud of myself, and I grew to love the heave and
roll of the _Ghost_ under my feet as she wallowed north and west through
the tropic sea to the islet w