"Here's a pill for you, Pop," said Cales, dropping a diamond into his horny hand.
"Gee! I'm just as well pleased to get this as I was to get a bunch of popcorn when I was a kid back in New England, off the Christmas tree."
"Better have it sot in one of your front teeth, Pop," said Jack. This produced a roar of laughter, for Pete's front teeth were conspicuous by their absence.
So the distribution went on without any bickering at first, only jovial jokes, but at last there came a bone of contention over the last diamond. And in a jiffy Jack Cales and a short, stocky sailor were all tangled up in a fierce encounter. Their comrades, none too gently, hoisted them up on deck. There they continued their fight.
No sooner did Captain Broom see them than he cluttered down from the bridge at a furious rate. The two combatants ought to have taken warning but they were deaf to everything except their own struggle. He was livid with anger, and his wrath was in a large measure justified.
"I'll larn you!" he yelled, grabbing each by the back of the neck. "You won't fight any more this trip."
They were like children in his hands. He had not only the arms of a gorilla, but the strength of one when he was aroused and it was a caution the way he slammed them around, flaying the deck with them, and dashing their heads together. It seemed as if every bone in their bodies would be broken. Finally he flung them unconscious on the deck.
"Put them in the Sagenette," he ordered the mate.
"Aye, aye, sir," he replied, and with the aid of one of the sailors, they were chained in a narrow cell.
Here was where Juarez and Tom came in. As the two fighters were knocked out and locked up, it made the crew short and they were ordered out on deck from the cabin where they had been kept. Almost famished though they were, they had to jump in and work like nailers, not to say, sailors.