Part 16 (1/2)
”I wasn't fighting,” answered d.i.c.k coolly. ”I was just teaching a rascal a lesson.”
”It amounts to the same thing. If you have any fault to find tell the captain, or tell me.”
”Well, I'll go to the captain, not you,” retorted d.i.c.k.
”All right,” growled the first mate. ”But just remember you can't boss things when I'm around.”
When Captain Blossom understood the situation he was thoroughly angry.
”Baxter certainly ought to be in prison,” he said. ”I'll clap him in the brig and feed him on bread and water for three days and see how he likes that.”
”He ought not to be left at large,” said Dora, with a shudder. ”He may try to murder somebody next.”
”We'll watch him after this,” said the captain.
He kept his word about putting Baxter in the s.h.i.+p's jail. But through Lesher the bully, got much better fare than bread and water. Strange as it may seem, a warm friends.h.i.+p sprang up between the bully and the first mate.
”I aint got nothing against you, Baxter,” said Jack Lesher. ”When we get to Australia perhaps we can work together, eh?” and he closed one eye suggestively. Baxter had told him of his rich relative, and the mate thought there might be a chance to get money from Baxter.
”He'd rather give me money than have me tell his relation what sort of a duck he is,” said Lesher to himself.
After this incident the time pa.s.sed pleasantly enough for over a week. When Baxter came from the brig he went to work without a word.
Whenever he pa.s.sed the Rovers or the girls he acted as if he did not know they were there, and they ignored him just as thoroughly. But the boys watched every move the bully made.
As mentioned before, Jack Lesher was a drinking man, and as the weather grew warmer the mate increased his potions until there was scarcely a day when he was thoroughly sober. Captain Blossom remonstrated with him, but this did little good.
”I'm attending to my duties,” said Lesher. ”And if I do that you can't expect more from me.”
”I thought I hired a man that was sober,” said Captain Blossom. ”I won't place my vessel in charge of a man who gets drunk.”
Yet he was not willing to do the mate's work, or put that work onto others, so Jack Lesher had to take his turn on deck, no matter in what condition.
”I must say I don't like that first mate at all,” said Tom to Sam.
”He is very friendly with Baxter.”
”I have noticed that,” replied the youngest Rover. ”Such a friends.h.i.+p doesn't count in the mate's favor.”
”Last night he was thoroughly drunk, and wasn't fit to command.”
”Well, that is Captain Blossom's lookout. The captain can't be on deck all of the time.”
Two nights after this talk Jack Lesher was again in command of the s.h.i.+p, Captain Blossom having retired after an unusually hard day.
It was hot and dark, and the air betokened a storm. The man at the wheel was following a course set by the captain, and the sailors whose watch was on deck lay around taking it as easy as they could.
The mate had been drinking but little in the afternoon, but before coming on deck he took several draughts of rum. He was in a partiallarly bad humor and ready to find fault with anybody or anything.