dumpin' the lot at Suva an' gettin' down to business--said he'd
fooled away enough time on the gang--but I argued that we'd took
their money--$50,000 of it, and they was entitled to some kind of
a run, an' if we marooned them, like as not they'd send a gunboat
after us, an' the fat'd be in the fire. Bull gave in to me
finally, though he growled a lot about the profits bein' all et
up by the brotherhood, appetites increasin' considerable at sea,
an' all that.

"Just after we leave Suva we butts into a mild little typhoon,
an' Bull scuds before it under bare poles, with just a wisp o' a
jib to steady her. An' when the brotherhood was pea-green with
seasickness I goes down into the bilges with a big auger an'
scuttles the ship. In about two hours the brother at the wheel
begins to complain that she's heavy an' draggin' like blazes, an'
he fears maybe her seams has opened up under the strain.

"'I shouldn't wonder a bit,' says Bull McGinty, 'she's been
jumpin' like a dolphin', and he goes below to investigate. Two
minutes later he prances up on deck like a lunatic.

"'All hands to the pumps,' he yells; 'there's four feet o' water
in the hold.' Aside he says to me, 'Gib, my boy, you're a jewel.
Not a drop of water in that forward compartment where we piled
the trade.'

"It was a terrible sad sight to see the seasick Brotherhood of
the South Seas staggerin' below to the pumps. We had four pumps,
an' feelin' that they might be able to pump her dry too soon, I
had removed the suction leather from two of them. What a howl