The men had all nicknames which seemed to grow upon them, or be suggested by their general appearance. There was one low-built squat fellow his comrades called "Kruger." A black man of gigantic strength "Slogger." From the first Kep was half afraid of this fellow. His great bare black feet and ankles, his immense naked neck and tattoed chest, his brutal figure-head and daring looks, all were repulsive. And he was so black that when in the sunshine he scratched one forearm, he left white streaks on it. But he was a good seaman. There was only one worse-looking man in the ship, though he was white. This was "Bloody Tom." Then there was "Long-shanks," expressive enough; "Spider-legs," the "Turk," and so on and so forth.
These I have named were the men that really dominated the rest of the crew, and whom, some time after this, Kep had good reason to remember.
They all of them, notwithstanding their looks, were good to Kep. This almost goes without saying, for away forward, after sundown, he could spin yarns that kept them laughing by the hour.
The Turk turned out a decent kind of hulk, and Kep would tell even him droll stories in his own tongue.
One day this man, while alone with Kep in the ship's waist, asked the boy to feel the keenness of a huge knife he carried.
"If anything ever happens," he told the boy, "I'll be your friend."
This Turk was called the "Prophet." Why, Kep could not tell.
The Macbeth was partly in ballast, but she landed a good deal of stuff at Rio and took in much more heavy cargo. No man on board, except the captain, knew what this cargo was. It consisted chiefly of huge, square, very heavy boxes.
Some thought it must be specie, but the Turk declared it was sand.
But why sand? We shall soon see. The ship was now stretching away down the South Atlantic, and in good time for such a slow and heavy sailer she doubled Cape Horn, and now bore north and west. Dolphin said he had no faith in the skipper, and that he merely told this story of their being bound for the Cape as a blind. He was going to do something bad. Dolphin was sure of this.