"I don't speak German," responded the sailor stubbornly.
Yet it was in German that he had called out he must see the captain.
This did not make the captain angry. Instead, like a vain boy, he began in French....
"I don't speak French ..." again objected the sailor, still in English.
"Very well, we'll speak in English, then ... bring him down into the cabin ..." to the men and mates ... To the sailor again, "Come on, Englishman! (in derision), and we'll sign you on in the ship's articles."
They haled him below. The captain dismissed the sailors. The captain, the two mates and I, were alone with the mutineer.... I stepped into the pantry, pretending to be busy with the dishes. I didn't want to miss anything.
"Now," explained the captain, "what's happened has happened ... it's up to you to make the best of it ... we had to shanghai you," and he explained the case in full ... and if he would behave and do his share of the work with the rest of the crew, he would be treated decently and be paid ... and let go, if he wished, when the Valkyrie reached Sydney....
"Now sign," commanded the mate, "I never heard of a man in your fix ever being treated so good before."
"But I won't sign."
"Damme, but you will," returned Miller, the first mate, who, though German, spoke English in real English fashion—a result, he later told me, of fifteen years' service on English boats....