Evening star., 1924-04-20

| our watch by a strange feeling that
some one was looking at me. My
eyes opened on short. very thickset
! fellow, one of our watch. who stood
before my bunk regarding me. He
| had square head, which was set
| close on his shoulders; If he had a
neck, You could not observe it. He
wore blue shirt and dungaree trou-
sers. His immensely muscular arms,
ending in very big hands, which were
| unclencbed, hung. at his sides. With
his hairy face. his small, deep-set and
cunning eyes, they gave him the ap-
pearance OF a human gorilla.
/ I opened startled and inquiring eyes
on him and raised myself half UP in
my bunk, but stopped because he
! never moved, and did not speak. He
merely stood considering me. My
impulse was to say, What do you
want?" but somehow the question
stuck in my throat. ! think ! was
F., afraid to ask what he wanted. We
stared at each other. distrustfully,
with first kind of doubt and then
an open suspicion. We had never
seen each other before.
Ills eyes were SIIIdIl anu udu Il lOOh
Of cunning In them. but it vanished.
! giving place to stupid look. as if
| he were an animal that had come
I upon something new in it's experience
and were trying to reach its limited
| mind around the new object. He
must have made up his mind. for the
| look of cunning came back. He
| oil 1,tl
[ forward ] do not think he was
| going to speak; it looked as IL he
were going to take hold of me with
| one of those hairy paws.
| One of the watch on deck stuck
| his head in our door with "a Hoo,
( Hoo! Hoo" having given himself the
| joyous assignment of rousing US beg
! gars, from the ease that he and his
| fellows were about TO enter upon.
Old John Brown turned ahruptly and
| shuffled off toward his bunk. His
manner, which I strove elaborately
to initiate, WAS that which one wears
when nothing at all has happened.
:: :: = +
I HAD plenty of occasion to remem-
her this incident. One day after
We had been almost a month at sea
Graves. one OF the negroes in my
watch, came to me and said:
You want to look out, Ov'ton. You
want to watch yourself. / hear Old
John Brown saying as how you ought
to be put over the side. l hear him
say as how you was only fit for feed
ing the bloody fishes. He and Carney
is talking together one time under
the fo'cs'le head and they is each
allowing how he is gwine git you
the firstest chance he has. Watch
yo'self. man, watch yoself.'
I took the warning seriously for by
that time / knew the vindictive tenn
per of both the sailor and the senior
apprentice. Graves went on:
when you goes aloft, you letten
someone else get between you and
either of them fellows, else you amt
never see Scotland
l had found out why Brown hated
me. AS rule he never spoke to me,
but on one occasion he burst out with
extraordinary vehemence, speaking in
slow voice and in the presence OF
the watch. In, fact, he never ad-
dressed me,when we we're alone. 1t
was his evident purpose. IL lie could,
to create hostile feeling toward me
on the part Of the others generally.
When you was not to. be 20 sly like
you are" he said, tn his curious
dialect caused by his habit Of using
Dutch or German idioms in English,
you would do your proper share O.
the ships wark. A damned shirker.
that's who you are. Bloody well
ought to die; we bloody we'll ought
to drown you! Come on board. you
DO, making out you amt know moth
ing. Was you seasick? No. Been to
Sea before, you have, and getting out
o an able seaman's wark.
In an expurgated fashion, this pre-
sents his argument. He said he was
a Hollander. His mind had a sort Of
stupid cunning and he reasoned in his
own way. had come on board
scarcely knowing the difference be-
tween mast and a yard. 1 hadn't
been seasick. Therefore 1 had been
to sea before. and my frequent exhi-
billions of Ignorance were just q pre-
tense to enable me to shirk my part
of the work.
At first / tried to meet this singular
reasoning. but 1 soon said nothing.
for the reason that the slightest OPP
position stirred him to g. pitch OF
wrath l had never seen before. And
he evidently nursed grudges.
Every man in our fo'c'sle had ap-
parently been in Jail ashore at least
half a dozen times for all sorts OF
things from drunkenness to stealing.
but John Brown was the only one
who had been tried for murder. 1t
was a great distinction, and he made
the most of it. He had stood trial
in New York city back in the 18s0s
and Mcintyre, later of the district
attorneys Office. had been his counsel
perhaps assigned by the court.
Very likely Brown stood trial under