"From what I have heard, I judge that the punishment is out of proportion to the offense, even if the steward's yarn was true."
"I'll have you know, that I'm the only man aboard this ship that has any judgment," Falk snarled.
"Judgment ?" Roger exclaimed; and the twist he gave the word was so funny that some one actually snickered.
"Yes, judgment !" Falk roared; and he turned on Roger with all the anger of his mean nature choking his voice. "I'll—I'll beat you, you young upstart, you! I'll beat you in that man's place," he cried, with a string of oaths.
"No," said Roger very coolly, "I think you won't."
"By heaven, I will!"
The two men faced each other like two cocks in the pit at the instant before the battle. There was a deathly silence on deck.
Such a scene, as I saw it there, if put on the stage in a theatre, would be a drama in itself without word or action. The sky was bright with stars; the land lay low and dark against the horizon; the sea whispered round the ship and sparkled with golden phosphorescence. Over our heads the masts towered to slender black shafts, which at that lofty height seemed far too frail to support the great network of rigging and spars and close-furled canvas. Dwarfed by the tall masts, by the distances of the sea, and by the vastness of the heavens, the small black figures stood silent on the quarter-deck. But one of those men was bound half-naked to the rigging, and two faced each other in attitudes that by outline alone, for we could discern the features of neither, revealed antagonism and defiance.
"No," said Roger once more, very coolly, "I think you won't."
As the captain lifted his rope to hit Bill again, Roger stepped forward.