“ ‘Tell you what,’ he said. ‘We don’t want to fight about it. That would n’t do you any good, nor me either, though we could do what we pleased if it came to a fight. We ’ll see Cap’n Coffin and fix it up with him.’
“ ‘Fix it up with me, here and now,’ said the Battles’ mate. ‘You can’t see Cap’n Coffin. He ’s confined to his cabin.’
“ ‘Confined to his cabin!’ said Mr. Baker. ‘What ’s the matter with him?’
“ ‘Nothing much,’ said the Battles’ mate. ‘Sticks in his cabin, and won’t see anybody.’
“ ‘That ’s queer,’ said Mr. Baker. ‘How does he give his orders?’
“ ‘Instructions in writing to be left on the cabin table every morning. No business of yours, but I don’t mind telling you.’
“ ‘Queer!’ said Mr. Baker. ‘Very queer.’
“It is mighty queer too, when you come to think of it,” said Peter. “But I don’t know the rights of it.
“The Battles’ mate was impatient. ‘Well,’ he says, ‘what ’you got to say?’
“Mr. Baker kind o’ smiled. ‘Fair division,’ he says; ‘we ’ll take the blubber, and you take the carcass.’