Part 19 (2/2)

”Wh-hat d'ye htee,” answered Ching wang as calmly as possible ”Me chin chin you, cap'en”

Captain Gillespie fairly boiled over with rage

”This beats cock-fighting!” he cried, stating the case inadvertently in his exclaht it was those confounded cats we have aboard the shi+p that ill-treated the poor fowls and prevented thes, till Pedro here told h I didn't believe it I wouldn't have believed it now if I hadn't seen you at it By jingo, it's sha, however, paid no attention to this violent tirade, only salaa the very picture of meekness and contrition

But his eyes, as I could see, being close by, having been attracted by the row as most of us were, had altered their expression, now flashi+ng with a peculiar glare as the Chinaman, with a more abject bow than before to the captain, asked hi wang cocky-fightee one piecee--hi?”

”Yes, Pedro toldout the words ”And a good job too; for, else, I wouldn't have known of your goings on!”

Ching wang's yellow face aler

”Hi, blackee-brownee er ”You takee dat number one, chop chop!”

CHAPTER TWELVE

A STRANGE SAIL

Although a coward at heart, the Portuguese steward, nerved by his intense hatred of the cook,at Ching wang's pigtail with one hand and clawing at his face with the other; while the China on the deck in a close e one

”Carajo!” gurgled out Pedro, half-strangled at the outset, but having such a tight hold of Ching wang's tail, of which he had taken a double turn round his wrist, that he was able to bend his antagonist's head back, ala de cozenheiro!”

”Aha cutus pijjin, h his clenched teeth; and then, not another word escaped either of thealley, locked together, the Chinee finally co up on top triuue protruding, below his lithe enemy

”Take him off the man, some of you,” cried Captain Gillespie, who had not made any effort to stop the combat until now that it bad arrived at such an unsatisfactory stage for the steward ”Don't you see that yellow devil'shim? He looks more than half dead already!”

Ti did not need any force to cotail fronity frouese, his round face all one bland sh it bore sundry scratches on its otherwise sreater hurt

”Hi down to the still prostrate Pedro, who, now that the Chinaan to show signs of returning life, ”what ivee chop chop!”

”I tell ye what, me joker,” cried ”Old Jock” after hi this short speech, with all the honours of war--the hands raising a cheer, which the presence of the captain could not drown, at the result of the encounter; for all of them looked on the steward as one opposed to their interests, and who cheated the the Chinaman, on the other hand, as their friend and ally, he always taking their part in this respect ”I tell ye what, es and hai! I don'twill do hiood, as he has wanted one for so those fine birds of htee' Look at this one, now; he's fit for nothing but the pot, and the sooner you cook hi only smiled more blandly than ever as the captain, who had picked up the two cocks, flung the silver and gold one into the galley, taking the other aft and restoring it to its coop; while Pedro, rising presently to his feet, arins of thenever a word but looking by no , and we i the decks, the cook and steward fight having soht bells” and nearly breakfast-time

Towards noon, on the same day, we passed by the island of Tristan da Cunha, the land bearing on our port quarter sou'-west by south when seen; and, on the thirteenth day after turning our backs on the Martin Vas Rocks, we crossed the rees 58almost due east so as to weather the Cape of Good Hope The westerly as dead aft, which made us roll a bit; but we ”carried on,” with the shi+p covered with sail from truck to kelson and stu'n'sails all the way up both on our weather side and to leeward, as well as spinnakers and a lot of other things in the sail line whose na, with our yards squared and every stitch of canvas drawing fore and aft, in another couple of days or so the Cape pigeons and shearwaters began to co the storht the sky ahead of us becahtning,” as sailors call it, told us to look out for squalls

This was a true portent; for the wind freshened during the first watch, causing us to take in all of our stu'n'sails before allants in quick succession, thenext furled and the foresail reefed, the vessel at ”four bells” being only under topsails and fore-topgallant staysail and reefed foresail