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Page 18
"Look by your foot, Harve," cried Dan below.
Harvey saw half a dozen knives stuck in a cleat in the hatch
combing. He dealt these around, taking over the dulled ones.
"Water!" said Disko Troop.
"Scuttle-butt's for'ard an' the dipper's alongside. Hurry, Harve,"
said Dan.
He was back in a minute with a big dipperful of stale brown water
which tasted like nectar, and loosed the jaws of Disko and Tom
Platt.
"These are cod," said Disko. "They ain't Damarskus figs, Tom
Platt, nor yet silver bars. I've told you that ever single time since
we've sailed together."
"A matter o' seven seasons," returned Tom Platt coolly. "Good
stowin's good stowin' all the same, an' there's a right an' a wrong
way o' stowin' ballast even. If you'd ever seen four hundred ton o'
iron set into the--"
"Hi!" With a yell from Manuel the work began again, and never
stopped till the pen was empty. The instant the last fish was down,
Disko Troop rolled aft to the cabin with his brother; Manuel and
Long Jack went forward; Tom Platt only waited long enough to
slide home the hatch ere he too disappeared. In half a minute
Harvey heard deep snores in the cabin, and he was staring blankly
at Dan and Penn.
"I did a little better that time, Danny," said Penn, whose eyelids
were heavy with sleep. "But I think it is my duty to help clean."
"'Wouldn't hev your conscience fer a thousand quintal," said Dan.
"Turn in, Penn. You've no call to do boy's work. Draw a bucket,
Harvey. Oh, Penn, dump these in the gurry-butt 'fore you sleep.
Kin you keep awake that long?"
Penn took up the heavy basket of fish-livers, emptied them into a
cask with a hinged top lashed by the foc'sle; then he too dropped
out of sight in the cabin.
"Boys clean up after dressin' down an' first watch in ca'am weather
is boy's watch on the 'We're Here'." Dan sluiced the pen
energetically, unshipped the table, set it up to dry in the moonlight,
ran the red knife-blades through a wad of oakum, and began to
sharpen them on a tiny grindstone, as Harvey threw offal and
backbones overboard under his direction.
At the first splash a silvery-white ghost rose bolt upright from the
oily water and sighed a weird whistling sigh. Harvey started back
with a shout, but Dan only laughed.
"Grampus," said he. "Beggin' fer fish-heads. They up-eend the way
when they're hungry. Breath on him like the doleful tombs, hain't
he?" A horrible stench of decayed fish filled the air as the pillar of
white sank, and the water bubbled oilily. "Hain't ye never seen a
grampus up-eend before? You'll see 'em by hundreds 'fore ye're
through. Say, it's good to hev a boy aboard again. Otto was too old,
an' a Dutchy at that. Him an' me we fought consid'ble. 'Wouldn't
ha' keered fer that ef he'd hed a Christian tongue in his head.
Sleepy?"
"Dead sleepy," said Harvey, nodding forward.
"Mustn't sleep on watch. Rouse up an' see ef our anchor-light's
bright an' shinin'. You're on watch now, Harve."
"Pshaw! What's to hurt us? 'Bright's day. Sn-orrr!"
"Jest when things happen, Dad says. Fine weather's good sleepin',
an' 'fore you know, mebbe, you're cut in two by a liner, an'
seventeen brass-bound officers, all gen'elmen, lift their hand to it
that your lights was aout an' there was a thick fog. Harve, I've
kinder took to you, but ef you nod onet more I'll lay into you with a
rope's end."
The moon, who sees many strange things on the Banks, looked
down on a slim youth in knickerbockers and a red jersey,
staggering around the cluttered decks of a seventy-ton schooner,
while behind him, waving a knotted rope, walked, after the manner
of an executioner, a boy who yawned and nodded between the
blows he dealt.
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