beats cock-fighting!" he cried, stating the case inadvertently in
his exclamation. "I thought it was those confounded cats we have aboard
the ship that ill-treated the poor fowls and prevented them from laying
me any eggs, till Pedro here told me it was you, though I didn't believe
it. I wouldn't have believed it now if I hadn't seen you at it. By
jingo, it's shameful!"

Ching Wang, however, paid no attention to this violent tirade, only
salaaming humbly and looking the very picture of meekness and
contrition.

But his eyes, as I could see, being close by, having been attracted by
the row as most of us were, had altered their expression, now flashing
with a peculiar glare as the Chinaman, with a more abject bow than
before to the captain, asked him deferentially:

"And dis one manee you tellee Ching Wang cocky-fightee one piecee--hi?"

"Yes, Pedro told me," replied Captain Gillespie, sniffing and snorting
out the words. "And a good job too; for, else, I wouldn't have known of
your goings on!"

Ching Wang's yellow face almost turned white with anger.

"Hi, blackee-brownee manee," he yelled, springing upon Pedro like a
tiger. "You takee dat number one, chop chop!"

CHAPTER TWELVE.

A STRANGE SAIL.

Although a coward at heart, the Portuguese steward, nerved by his
intense hatred of the cook, made a bold resistance to his first
onslaught, clutching at Ching Wang's pigtail with one hand and clawing
at his face with the other; while the Chinaman gripped his neck with his
sinewy fingers, the two rolling on the deck in a close embrace, which
was the very reverse of a loving one.

"Carajo!" gurgled out Pedro, half-strangled at the outset, but having
such a tight hold of Ching Wang's tail, of which he had taken a double
turn round his wrist, that he was able to bend his antagonist's head
back, almost dislocating his neck. "Matarei te, podenga de cozenheiro!"

"Aha cutus pijjin, me catchee you, chop chop!" grunted the other through
his clenched teeth; and then, not another word escaped either of them as
they both sprawled and tumbled about in front of the galley, locked
together, the Chinee finally coming up on top triumphantly, with Pedro,
all black in the face and with his tongue protruding, below his lithe
enemy.

"Take him off the man, some of you," cried Captain Gillespie, who had
not made any effort to stop the combat until now that it bad arrived at
such an unsatisfactory stage for the steward. "D