"No."
"Well, I'll do my best to train you. You've got an awful hard course to steer. You began bad by gittin' the mate down on you, an' I've no doubt but what he'll be layin' for you all the time, anyway."
"So long as he keeps his hands off me, I'll give him no further chance for trouble."
"An' if he don't?" asked the boatswain impressively.
"If he goes to that length--"
"You'll have to stand it jest the same. Mutiny on the high seas is the worst crime a sailor can be found guilty of. Everybody ashore is on the side of the officers--courts, an' jestices, an' juries."
"I'd like to get that brute in a court," said Beekman savagely. "I'd almost be willing to mutiny to do it."
"Take my advice on this p'int, too," said Gersey earnestly. "The less a sailor man has to do with law sharks an' courts ashore, the better off he finds hisself."
Thus it happened that when four bells were struck, and all the port watch were called, Beekman presented himself with the rest.
"So you've decided to turn to, have you, you dirty ragamuffin?" roared Woywod as the watch came tumbling aft.