He was something to notice, all right, and his voice was grand. Nothing of the nervous squeak of the coolie about it. It sang along with flutelike notes that bristled full of "I's" and "Ah's," until you thought he was singing it to his men in a sort of deep bass or baritone.
Understand him? Did you ever know any white man who could understand a Chink if that fellow didn't talk for him to understand it? No, we took it for granted that the "boss" coolie was on the level, and was arguing with the herd to corral them into the alleyways where they belonged. He understood the skipper right enough.
A stout yellow man edged from the press about the door of the forward house, and came to the big man's side. A soft gabble, then a yell, then the herd took the alleyways on the jump, and inside of ten seconds there was not a yellowskin on deck.
"Got 'em trained, all right enough," said Slade, with a grin. "The old man needn't worry about 'em if the big one goes at it that way."
"Fifty-seven Chinks on a dead man's chest—and I'll bet my month's pay they've a bottle of rum—maybe a hundred," I ventured. "What's the big cheese's name?"
"Sink me, if I know! The old man called him 'Yaller Dog,' and he's that, all solid. Let it go at that. I'd sure like to have him in my watch. What a man he'd make on a earing in a blow!"
"Shall we deal them their rice raw or cooked?" I asked. "I suppose they won't eat it if it's cooked in the galley, and then they'd be trying to build fires under the cabin or in the lazaret to boil it."
"No; let 'em eat it or throw it overboard. What do you care? Turn the men to, and choose the watch, and then I'll go below for a rest."
I did so, and soon the Farallones were disappearing in the east astern.
The first two days out there was so much to do aboard that I hardly had time to observe things. The decks were lumbered up with all kinds of gear, and a load of stuff for Honolulu, which took all our time to secure. The men were under the union scale of the West Coast—that is, thirty dollars per month—and there was nothing off on account of our going deep-water in her, for we were not by any means coasting at all, as our course lay directly across the Pacific Ocean, and the itinerary took in a voyage of seven thousand miles.