I say, younker, an' not when anybody else likes, stooard or no stooard!"

With this return message, I retreated nimbly down the companion, glad to
get out of his reach, he looked so savage when he shoved me; but I had
hardly descended two steps, when he called after me with a loud shout,
that echoed down the passage way and made my flesh creep.

"B'y!" he yelled, making a jump, as if to grab hold of me. "B'y!"

"Ye-e-e-yes, sir," I stammered, in mortal terror, looking back up the
hatchway, though too frightened to return to nearer quarters with him
again. "Ye-e-yes, sir."

My alarm amused him. It was a sort of implied compliment to his
bullying powers; and he laughed harshly, nodding his head.

"What in thunder air ye afeard on?" he said. "I ain't goin' to kill ye
this time, b'y; it's another cuss I'm after, a kinder sort o' skunk of a
different colour, I guess. Look hyar, b'y, jest ye make tracks forrud
when ye've told the stooard what I've said, an' see whether thet
tarnation black nigger's asleep in his galley, or what. Won't I give
him fits when I catch him, thet's all--thaar, be off with ye, smart!"

I did not need any second intimation to go, but plunged down the
companion stairway as if a wild bull was after me; and, telling the
Welshman, Morris Jones, who acted as steward, a poor, cowardly sort of
creature, that the captain did not want his dinner yet, hastened through
the cuddy, and on to the maindeck beyond, coming out by the sliding door
under the break of the poop, which was the `back entrance,' as it were,
to the cabin.

The ship being close-hauled, heeled over so much to leeward that her
port side was almost under water, the waves that broke over the
fo'c's'le running down in a cataract into the waist and forming a
regular river inside the bulwarks, right flush up with the top of the
gunwale, which slushed backwards and forwards as the vessel pitched and
rose again, one moment with her bows in the air, and the next diving her
nose deep down into the rocking seas; so, I had to scramble along
towards the galley on the weather side, holding on to every rope I could
clutch to secure my footing, the deck slanting so much from the _Denver
City_ laying over to the wind, even under the reduced canvas she had
spread. To add to my difficulties, also, in getting forwards, the
sheets of foam and spindrift were carried along by the fierce gusts--
which came now and again between the lulls, when it blew mo