Noyes saw him leap to one side, even as he saw a heavy, triple-sheaved block bound on the steel deck beside him. Noyes looked up. Aloft was the boson, apparently rigging up some sort of a hoisting arrangement.
The pump-man stopped to pull out a handkerchief and wipe his forehead. Then he, too, looked up. "Fine business. But did you think for a minute you—that I didn't have my eye on you?"
It took the boson a minute or two to find his tongue. When he did, it was to say, "Young fella, did you ship for a opera singer or wot?"
"I shipped for what you'll find my name signed against in the articles, and I'm on the job every minute. And I'll go on singing if it pleases me. And if it pleases me, I'll finish that song, too."
[pg 190]
"Not on this ship, you won't, 'less you sing it in your sleep and me not in hearin'."
"I'll finish it on this ship, son. And it won't be in my sleep and you'll be within hearing."
A group of deck-hands snickered, and the boson pretended to climb down from the rigging. "You swine! What the—"
They retreated in terror. "It wasn't at you we was laffin', boson."