e equator as San Francisco is north of
it. The trouble was precipitated yesterday morning shortly after nine
o'clock, and Possum started the chain of events that culminated in
downright mutiny. It was Mr. Mellaire's watch, and he was standing on
the bridge, directly under the mizzen-top, giving orders to Sundry
Buyers, who, with Arthur Deacon and the Maltese Cockney, was doing
rigging work aloft.

Get the picture and the situation in all its ridiculousness. Mr. Pike,
thermometer in hand, was coming back along the bridge from taking the
temperature of the coal in the for'ard hold. Ditman Olansen was just
swinging into the mizzen-top as he went up with several turns of rope
over one shoulder. Also, in some way, to the end of this rope was
fastened a sizable block that might have weighed ten pounds. Possum,
running free, was fooling around the chicken-coop on top the 'midship-
house. And the chickens, featherless but indomitable, were enjoying the
milder weather as they pecked at the grain and grits which the steward
had just placed in their feeding-trough. The tarpaulin that covered
their pen had been off for several days.

Now observe. I am at the break of the poop, leaning on the rail and
watching Ditman Olansen swing into the top with his cumbersome burden.
Mr. Pike, proceeding aft, has just passed Mr. Mellaire. Possum, who, on
account of the Horn weather and the tarpaulin, has not seen the chickens
for many weeks, is getting reacquainted, and is investigating them with
that keen nose of his. And a hen's beak, equally though differently
keen, impacts on Possum's nose, which is as sensitive as it is keen.

I may well say, now that I think it over, that it was this particular hen
that started the mutiny. The men, well-driven by Mr. Pike, were ripe for
an explosion, and Possum and the hen laid the train.

Possum fell away backwards from the coop and loosed a wild cry of pain
and indignation. This attracted Ditman Olansen's attention. He paused
and craned his neck out in order to see, and, in this moment of
carelessness, the block he was carrying fetched away from him along with
the several turns of rope around his shoulder. Both the mates sprang
away to get out from under. The rope, fast to the block and following
it, lashed about like a blacksnake, and, though the block fell clear of
Mr. Mellaire, the bight of the rope snatched off his cap.

Mr. Pike had already started an oath aloft when his eyes cau