"Fitzgibbon!--Giller!--Hackey!" I called in turn, and was obeyed.
"Fay!" I called twice, ere the response came.
Isaac Chantz stood alone, and Bombini now showed eagerness.
"Chantz!" I said; "don't you think it would be healthier to go over
to the fife-rail and be good?"
He debated the matter not many seconds, resheathed his knife, and
complied.
The tang of power! I was minded to let literature get the better of
me and read the rascals a lecture; but thank heaven I had sufficient
proportion and balance to refrain.
"Rhine!" I said.
He turned his corroded face up to me and blinked in an effort to see.
"As long as Chantz takes your orders, leave him alone. We'll need
every hand to work the ship in. As for yourself, send Murphy aft in
half an hour and I'll give him the best the medicine-chest affords.
That is all. Go for'ard."
And they shambled away, beaten and dispirited.
"But that man--his face--what happened to him?" Margaret asked of me.
Sad it is to end love with lies. Sadder still is it to begin love
with lies.
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