Benjamin Stump nodded his head in reply and turned on his heel to go forward. This was a daily occurrence. Captain Scott had learned to secure his human cargo at night. A mutiny that came near ending fatally to him had taught him this lesson.
“Oh, Stump!” Captain Scott raised his voice to be heard above the lapping of the water and the noise of shaking canvas. “I hope our disagreement at Suva[11] is all forgotten by now. You can’t afford to fall out with me, Stump,” he added menacingly after the man had returned and lolled against the shrouds of the main rigging. “There’s that little affair at the Ellice Islands and the deal in Tahiti; and besides, Stump, you know that black boy on our last manifest didn’t really fall overboard.”
Stump’s knees shook imperceptibly while his thin claw-like fingers worked convulsively. His uncouth mind had not forgotten the matter. He had remembered it, lived with the remembrance every day of the thirty since leaving the Fijis; and had nursed his desire for revenge against his captain and benefactor.
“Captain Scott, you hadn’t any call to do what you did,” he said doggedly. “Those people were my friends, and righteous people too. They believed the story I told ’em. They gave me human sympathy, and I was downright sorry I wasn’t what I said I was. I was afeared to tell them the truth. They took me to prayer-meetings and prayed for my soul and one of the young ladies begged me to go home to my old parents and be forgiven.”
Captain Scott suddenly leaned back in his seat and roared with uncontrolled laughter.
“You impious rascal!” he exclaimed. “Do you suppose I could permit you to impose upon my friends with any such tales? I picked you up in Shanghai, do you remember? You either had to go with me or to the consular jail for being too light fingered with other people’s money. You told me your parents were dead; and besides, that young lady was getting too sorry for you for both her good and yours.”
Stump’s weasel eyes flashed angrily.
“You might have split on me differently,” he said. “That girl’s accusing eyes hurt me every time I think of it.”
Captain Scott stifled his merriment.
“I’m really sorry, Stump,” he said. “You and I have been together a long time, and sometimes maybe I don’t understand you as I should. Sentiment is new to you. This trip is going to give us a rich haul, and I’m going to give you an extra hundred dollars just to square your injured vanity.”