"What you say? No, no. Coat and spectacles."
"Do ye mane to tell me," said Mike, disgusted, "that ye would sit on the one side of a galley door payling spuds, and that sitting forninst ye on the other?"
This was beyond Pierre, but a sudden stampede behind announced that grub was being brought aft.
"So long just now," said Mike, and plunged down after the crowd; and Pierre, who in a menial capacity had helped to prepare this meal, went down again to the galley door from his airing, to take what food the cook would have ready for him. He gathered that Mike had some contempt for his occupation down there, but in so far as the society went, it was—as he had phrased it—not nice there, not nice here. But the quality, as well as the quantity, of the food doled out to him in return for his services at the galley door, was greatly different from that which was scrimmaged for in the cattlemen's cabin, gristly hash and a biscuit, and a tin-cupful of soup. Pierre, down there forward, ate as well as the captain—had mashed potatoes, a little piece of fish, well cooked Irish stew, a hunk of pie; and, if they had paid no heed to the fierce expletives volleyed upon them, the two galley slaves received a cup of coffee later, with: "Here—here's a cup of coffee for you, you poor devils." Pierre and Four Eyes are not the only people who have chosen the fleshpots of Egypt on such terms.
CHAPTER XI
An air of belligerence still hung about the boat, thick as the smell of the cattle. The twelve stallions, ranged amidships, bickered like the men. The alleyway before them was narrow; they could stretch their necks all the way across it, and they were everlastingly doing so—not in the friendly way of the long-horned steers that stretched out merely to draw attention to themselves lest somebody might have food for them, but stretched out crankily, even at their mildest, and at their worst, devilishly. When one did so thrust out its head the ears were always laid back, the teeth showing, the eyes rolled white, glinting round to see what the neighbour was up to. Out would come that neighbour's head like a darting snake, and snap would go the teeth left and right. Out came the next head, and so on along the line—till every horse was snapping left and right save the end ones, that had only to keep alert inwards. Thus were they with each other, and when human beings came along each tried to take a piece out of the passer by; and when he succeeded in running the gauntlet, tried to take a piece out of its neighbour for having wished to share the human being's head.
Most of the men attempted the "Whoa now! Steady boy!" method, not only for their own sakes, but for those who were to handle the horses later. The night watchman used to go past them on hands and knees. Scholar saw him do so once, and immediately gave up his practice of going on to the upper deck, and passing over them so, and descending again; gave up even descending to the lower deck and running the gauntlet of the men there (which was not quite as bad as that of the stallions, for not all were unfriendly) when coming and going. Now, when he had occasion to go forward alone, he always did so by way of the horses, the direct way, and passed them slowly. Each one of them seemed to be possessed of a devil. Cockney had an ear torn off—and the temper of the stallions was not improved thereby. That fellow was a marvel. He got the bandage off the dent of the taffrail on the third day, and that afternoon he had his head bound up afresh because of his torn ear. He expressed no opinion about these stallions, he voiced no threat, not even to the steward who bandaged him, fresh from the accident; but after the steward had done with him, and he had brought the odour of iodoform into our midst and been decently sympathised with, he stole away armed with a cudgel. Those who saw him slip it up under his jacket said nothing. He swung with flapping trousers, a vigorous bag of bones, along the alley where the stallions challenged all comers. Out came the head of stallion one at his approach, and crash went the cudgel on its nose. That brought out the head and neck of the second, brought out the craning necks of all of them; and Cockney flailed his way along the line, flailed up and down, and flailed his way back again, and returned to the cattlemen's den and sat down upon the bunk's edge, with the spreading stain of a fresh hemorrhage upon the bandage. Men looked at the head between those thin hands.
