Mr. Trunnell | Page 8

the sky, and the lumpy
clouds above were rosy with sunlight.
The air was cool, but not too sharp for comfort; the breeze from the
southward blew steadily and just sent the tops of the waves to foam,
here and there, like white stars appearing and disappearing on the
expanse to windward. The Pirate lay along on the port tack, and with
her skysails to her trucks she made a beautiful sight. Her canvas was
snowy white, showing that no money had been spared on her sails. Her
spars were all painted or scraped and her standing rigging tarred down
to a beautiful blackness. Only on deck and among the ropes of her
running gear was shown that sign of untidiness which distinguishes the
merchant vessel from the man-of-war.
I managed to get some hands to work on the braces, and finally got the
yards trimmed shipshape and in the American fashion. That was, with
the lower yards sharp on the back-stays, the topsails a little further aft,
the t'gallant a little further still, until the main-skysail was almost
touching with its weather leach cutting into the breeze a point or more
forward of the weather beam. The fore and aft canvas was trimmed
well, and the outer jibs lifted the ship along at a slapping rate. She was
evidently fast in spite of her load, and I looked over the side at the foam
that was seething past the lee channels in swirls and eddies which gave

forth a cheerful hissing sound as they slipped aft at the rate of six knots
an hour. The man at the wheel held her easily, and that was a blessing;
for nothing is much worse for a mate's discomfort than a wild ship
sheering from side to side leaving a wake like the path of some
monstrous snake.
When I looked again on the main deck I saw the figure of a man whom
I failed to recognize as a member of the ship's company. He was
standing near the opening of the after-hatchway, which had not yet
been battened down, and his gaze was fixed upon me. He was a
broad-shouldered fellow, about the average height, and was dressed in
a tight-fitting black coat which reached to his knees. On his head was a
skull cap with a long tassel hanging down from its top, and in his
mouth was a handsome meerschaum pipe, which hung down by its
stem to the middle of his breast. His beard was long and just turning
gray, and his eyebrows were heavy and prominent.
I stood staring at the figure, and I must say I never saw a more brutal
expression upon a man's face. His large mouth and thick lips appeared
to wear a sneering smile, while his eyes twinkled with undisguised
amusement. His nose was large and flat like a Hottentot's, and while I
gazed at him in astonishment, he raised it in the air and gave forth a
snort which apparently meant that he was well satisfied with the way
affairs were being carried on aboard the ship and he was consequently
amused.
"Here! you man; what the deuce are you doing aboard here?" I asked as
I advanced to the break of the poop and stared down at him. He gave
another snort, and looked at me with undisguised contempt, but
disdained to answer and turned away, going to the lee rail and
expectorating over the side. Then he came slowly back across the main
deck, while my spleen rose at his superior indifference. I have always
been a man of the people, and have fought my way along to whatever
position I have held on the comprehensive rule of give and take.
Nothing is so offensive to me as the assumption of superiority when
backed solely by a man's own conception of his value. Therefore it was
in no pleasant tone that I addressed the stranger on his return to the
deck beneath me.
"My fine cock," said I, "if you haven't a tongue, you probably have ears,
and if you don't want them to feel like the grate-bars of the galley stove,

you'll do well to sing out when I speak. Can you rise to that?"
The man looked me squarely in the eyes, and I never saw such a
fiendish expression come into a human face as that which gathered in
his. "You infernal, impudent--" he began; and here for a moment
followed a string of foul oaths from the man's lips, while he passed his
hand behind his back and drew forth a long knife. Then without a
moment's further hesitation he sprang up the steps to the poop.
The fiendishness of the attack took me off my guard, for I was not
prepared for such a serious