n the weather is fine) I passed a much
more satisfactory time than when wandering about with no objective, an
empty pocket, and a hungry belly. No foremast hand has ever enjoyed his
opportunities of making the acquaintance of his various visiting places
more than I have; but the circumstances attendant upon one's leave must
be a little favourable, or I would much rather stay aboard and fish.
Our task was over for the day, a goodly store of wood and casks of water
having been shipped. We were sitting down to supper, when, in answer to
a hail from the beach, we were ordered to fetch the liberty men. When
we got to them, there was a pretty how-d'ye-do. All of them were more or
less drunk, some exceedingly quarrelsome. Now, Mistah Jones was steering
our boat, looking as little like a man to take sauce from a drunken
sailor as you could imagine. Most of the transformed crowd ya-hooing
on the beach had felt the weight of his shoulder-of-mutton fist, yet so
utterly had prudence forsaken them that, before we came near them, they
were abusing him through all the varied gamut of filthy language they
possessed. My democratic sentiments are deeply seated, but I do believe
in authority, and respect for it being rigidly enforced, so this
uncalled-for scene upset me, making me feel anxious that the gibbering
fools might get a lesson. They got one.

Goliath stood like a tower, his eyes alone betraying the fierce anger
boiling within. When we touched the beach, his voice was mild end gentle
as a child's, his movements calm and deliberate. As soon as we had
beached the boat he stepped ashore, and in two strides was in the middle
of the snarling group. Further parley ceased at once. Snatching the
loudest of them by the breast of his shirt with his right hand, another
one by the collar with his left, he flung himself backwards towards the
boat, knocking the interveners right and left. But a protruding fragment
of rock caught his heel, bringing him with his captives to the ground
in a writhing mass. The rest, maddened beyond restraint of fear,
flung themselves upon the prostrate man, the glimmer of more than one
knife-blade appearing. Two of us from the boat--one with the tiller, the
other brandishing a paddle--rushed to the rescue; but before we arrived
the giant had heaved off his assailants, and, with no other weapons than
his bare hands, was doing terrific execution among them. Not knowing,
I suppose, whether we were friendly to him or n