your crew."

Noyes descended to the chart-room deck. "I wish," he breathed, "that
that pump-man had never seen this ship. They'll kill him before the
day's over."


III

The after-rail of the chart-room deck looked almost directly down the
hatch whereon the fight was to take place. As Noyes was taking his
position by the rail he guessed that the bosun must have just said
something which pleased the crew, for most of them were still laughing
heartily.

Kieran, on a camp-stool, waited for the laughter to simmer down. He
fixed a mocking eye on the bosun. "And so you're a whale, eh? And you'll
learn me what a whale can do to little fishes? Well, let me tell you
something about a whale, son. A whale is a sure enough big creature, but
I never heard he was a fighting fish before. Now, if you knew more
about some things, you'd never called yourself a whale, but a thrasher.
There's the best fighting fish of them all--the thrasher. The thrasher's
the boy with the wallop. He's the boy that chases the whale, and leaps
high out of the water, and snaps his long, limber tail, and bam! down he
comes on that big slob of a whale and breaks his back. All the wise old
whales, they take to deep water when they see a thrasher hunting
trouble. It's the foolish young whales that don't know enough to let the
thrasher alone."

Noyes noted that the crew laughed more loudly at the bosun's rough jeers