In about a week, after his eye had healed just a little, I drew Franz apart. We sat down together on the main hatch. I was worried about him. I did not understand him. I was sorry for him.
"Look here, Franz ... don't you know you might get put clean out of business if you keep this mutiny of one up much longer? You can't whip a whole ship's crew."
"I don't want to whip a whole ship's crew."
"The captain had to have another man in a hurry, you know ... but he's really willing to give you decent treatment."
"Did the captain send you to tell me this?"
"Of course not ... only I'm sorry for you."
Franz gave me a broad, inexplicable wink. He smiled grotesquely—from swollen lips made more grotesque because of a recent punch in the mouth "Sailmaker" had fetched him....
"Don't trouble yourself about me. I know what I'm doing, my boy."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that, as soon as I came out of my drunk, and found myself shanghaied, I wanted them to ill-treat me ... there's a Sailors' Aid Society at Sydney, you know!"