“Shine” broke for the hatchway, with two of the men at his heels. He was half way down the ladder when Doherty’s voice from below threatened: “The first man ’at comes down here, I’ll let the cats loose on him.”
“Go on,” Keighley said grimly. “Bring ’m up. We don’t want any more Sachsen games played on us here.”
They went. But they did not go far. “Shine” had no more than jumped down among the cages when a shrill squealing rose in the hatch. A yell from “Shine” topped it with a startling note of fright; and up the ladder, over the men on the rungs, there came a swarm of monkeys, biting and fighting like rats as the men tried to beat them off, and clinging to arms and legs, shrieking and chattering, when the men, retreating, began to clamber up. They poured out, gibbering, on the deck and put the crew to flight. Then they scattered in all directions, up the derrick to the top-tackle, and up the house-work to the higher decks. And when “Shine” came up the ladder, with the last little marmoset hugging his neck, the main deck was empty, the men were laughing shamefacedly on the bulwarks, and Keighley was bellowing down to the Hudson for two lines of small hose.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll queer that game.”
“Leave him alone,” the chief ordered. “Look after that fire.”
“That’s what we did on the Sachsen,” Keighley replied, “an’ we ended up in a hole.” He added, in a swift aside: “All right, chief. I want to show yuh somethin’. That’s Doherty—the man the ‘Jiggers’ tried to knife me fer. I’m goin’ to send after ’m the four jiggers that’s left in the crew. I want yuh to see fer yerself about how much o’ the Jigger bus’ness there is in my comp’ny. I’ll take the other men down after the fire.”
The chief considered a moment, and let his silence give consent. Keighley pushed back his helmet from his forehead and turned to his men, his lips shut tight on a smile.
“Here, Moore,” he called to his lieutenant, “I’ll look after the fire down there. I want you to take charge o’ that fullah Doherty an’ see he don’t put up any games on us when we’re ’n under. Here you,” he called to “Shine”, “an’ you,” to Cripps, “an’ you,” to another Jigger, “go with the loot’nt. Better take a line er two, in case he lets any more monkeys out on yuh. Get a move on now. Take yer lamps. Come on, men. Hurry up with that six-inch line.”
The firemen carried their hose over to the hatch. When the lines were coupled and stretched in, “Shine” said to Moore, “Le’ me go ahead, will yuh?”
Moore understood that he was eager to wipe out the disgrace of his first retreat. “Go on,” he said.