killed the helmsman and Morris Jones, the steward, thinking he
was still in pursuit of the negro cook--which showed the murderous
proclivities of his own mind, drunk or sober. However, all the same, he
stopped the first-mate now from trying to use his knife; although the
latter would probably have come off the worst if he had made another
rush at Jan Steenbock, who stood on the defence, prepared for all
emergencies.

"No, ye don't. Stow it, I tell ye, or I'll throttle ye, by thunder!"
said the skipper, shaking Mr Flinders in his wiry grasp like a terrier
would a rat; while, turning to Jan, he asked: "An' what hev ye ter say
about this darned muss--I s'pose it's six o' one an' half-dozen o'
t'other, hey?"

"Misther Vlinders vas roosh to sthrike me, and I vas knock hims down,"
said Jan Steenbock, in his laconic fashion. "He vas get oop and roosh
at me vonce mores, and I vas knock hims down on ze deck again; and zen,
you vas coom oop ze hatchway, and dat vas all."

"But, confound ye!" cried the other, putting in his spoke, "you called
me a fule fust!"

"So ye air a fule," said Captain Snaggs, "an' a tarnation fule, too, I
reckon--the durndest fule I ever seed; fur the old barquey wouldn't be
lyin' hyar whaar she is, I guess, but fur yer durned pigheadedness!"

"Zo I vas zay," interposed Jan Steenbock. "I das tell hims it vas all
bekos he vas one troonken vool dat we ras wreck, zir."

"Ye never sed a truer word, mister," replied the skipper, showing but
little sympathy for Mr Flinders, whom he ordered to go below and wash
his dirty face, now the `little unpleasantness' between himself and his
brother mate was over. "Still, hyar we air, I guess, an' the best thing
we ken do is ter try an' get her off. Whaar d'yer reckon us to be,
Mister Steenbock, hey?"

"On ze Galapagos," answered the second-mate modestly, in no ways puffed
up by his victory over the other or this appeal to his opinion by
Captain Snaggs, who, like a good many more people in the world,
worshipped success, and was the first to turn his back on his own
champion when defeated. "I zink ze sheep vas shtruck on Abingdon
Island. I vas know ze place, cap'n; oh, yase, joost zo!"

"Snakes an' alligators, mister! Ye doan't mean ter say ye hev been hyar
afore, hey?"

"Ja zo, cap'n," replied Jan Steenbock, in his slow and matter-of-fact
way, taking he other's expression literally; "but dere vas no shnake,
dat I vas zee, and no alligator. Dere vas noz