“This Frisco booze must be something fierce,” thought Billy.
His head ached frightfully and he was very sick. So sick that the room in which he lay seemed to be rising and falling in a horribly realistic manner. Every time it dropped it brought Billy's stomach nearly to his mouth.
Billy shut his eyes. Still the awful sensation. Billy groaned3. He never had been so sick in all his life before, and, my, how his poor head did hurt. Finding that it only seemed to make matters worse when he closed his eyes Billy opened them again.
He looked about the room in which he lay. He found it a stuffy4 hole filled with bunks6 in tiers three deep around the sides. In the center of the room was a table. Above the table a lamp hung suspended from one of the wooden beams of the ceiling.
The lamp arrested Billy's attention. It was swinging back and forth7 rather violently. This could not be a hallucination. The room might seem to be rising and falling, but that lamp could not seem to be swinging around in any such manner if it were not really and truly swinging. He couldn't account for it. Again he shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them to look again at the lamp he found it still swung as before.
Cautiously he slid from his bunk5 to the floor. It was with difficulty that he kept his feet. Still that might be but the effects of the liquor. At last he reached the table to which he clung for support while he extended one hand toward the lamp.
There was no longer any doubt! The lamp was beating back and forth like the clapper of a great bell. Where was he? Billy sought a window. He found some little round, glass-covered holes near the low ceiling at one side of the room. It was only at the greatest risk to life and limb that he managed to crawl on all fours to one of them.
As he straightened up and glanced through he was appalled9 at the sight that met his eyes. As far as he could see there was naught11 but a tumbling waste of water. And then the truth of what had happened to him broke upon his understanding.
“An' I was goin' to roll that guy!” he muttered in helpless bewilderment. “I was a-goin' to roll him, and now look here wot he has done to me!”
At that moment a light appeared above as the hatch was raised, and Billy saw the feet and legs of a large man descending12 the ladder from above. When the newcomer reached the floor and turned to look about his eyes met Billy's, and Billy saw that it was his host of the previous evening.
“Well, my hearty13, how goes it?” asked the stranger.
“You pulled it off pretty slick,” said Billy.
“What do you mean?” asked the other with a frown.
“Come off,” said Billy; “you know what I mean.”
“Look here,” replied the other coldly. “Don't you forget that I'm mate of this ship, an' that you want to speak respectful to me if you ain't lookin' for trouble. My name's MR. Ward8, an' when you speak to me say SIR. Understand?”
Billy scratched his head, and blinked his eyes. He never before had been spoken to in any such fashion—at least not since he had put on the avoirdupois of manhood. His head ached horribly and he was sick to his stomach—frightfully sick. His mind was more upon his physical suffering than upon what the mate was saying, so that quite a perceptible interval14 of time elapsed before the true dimensions of the affront15 to his dignity commenced to percolate16 into the befogged and pain-racked convolutions of his brain.
The mate thought that his bluster17 had bluffed18 the new hand. That was what he had come below to accomplish. Experience had taught him that an early lesson in discipline and subordination saved unpleasant encounters in the future. He also had learned that there is no better time to put a bluff19 of this nature across than when the victim is suffering from the after-effects of whiskey and a drug—mentality, vitality20, and courage are then at their lowest ebb21. A brave man often is reduced to the pitiful condition of a yellow dog when nausea22 sits astride his stomach.
But the mate was not acquainted with Billy Byrne of Kelly's gang. Billy's brain was befuddled23, so that it took some time for an idea to wriggle24 its way through, but his courage was all there, and all to the good. Billy was a mucker, a hoodlum, a gangster25, a thug, a tough. When he fought, his methods would have brought a flush of shame to the face of His Satanic Majesty26. He had hit oftener from behind than from before. He had always taken every advantage of size and weight and numbers that he could call to his assistance. He was an insulter of girls and women. He was a bar-room brawler27, and a saloon-corner loafer. He was all that was dirty, and mean, and contemptible28, and cowardly in the eyes of a brave man, and yet, notwithstanding all this, Billy Byrne was no coward. He was what he was because of training and environment. He knew no other methods; no other code. Whatever the meager29 ethics30 of his kind he would have lived up to them to the death. He never had squealed31 on a pal10, and he never had left a wounded friend to fall into the hands of the enemy—the police.
Nor had he ever let a man speak to him, as the mate had spoken, and get away with it, and so, while he did not act as quickly as would have been his wont32 had his brain been clear, he did act; but the interval of time had led the mate into an erroneous conception of its cause, and into a further rash show of authority, and had thrown him off his guard as well.
“What you need,” said the mate, advancing toward Billy, “is a bash on the beezer. It'll help you remember that you ain't nothin' but a dirty damn landlubber, an' when your betters come around you'll—”
But what Billy would have done in the presence of his betters remained stillborn in the mate's imagination in the face of what Billy really did do to his better as that worthy33 swung a sudden, vicious blow at the mucker's face.
Billy Byrne had not been scrapping34 with third- and fourth-rate heavies, and sparring with real, live ones for nothing. The mate's fist whistled through empty air; the blear-eyed hunk of clay that had seemed such easy prey to him was metamorphosed on the instant into an alert, catlike bundle of steel sinews, and Billy Byrne swung that awful right with the pile-driver weight, that even The Big Smoke himself had acknowledged respect for, straight to the short ribs35 of his antagonist36.
With a screech37 of surprise and pain the mate crumpled38 in the far corner of the forecastle, rammed39 halfway40 beneath a bunk by the force of the terrific blow. Like a tiger Billy Byrne was after him, and dragging the man out into the center of the floor space he beat and mauled him until his victim's blood-curdling shrieks41 echoed through the ship from stem to stern.
When the captain, followed by a half-dozen seamen42 rushed down the companionway, he found Billy sitting astride the prostrate43 form of the mate. His great fingers circled the man's throat, and with mighty44 blows he was dashing the fellow's head against the hard floor. Another moment and murder would have been complete.
“Avast there!” cried the captain, and as though to punctuate45 his remark he swung the heavy stick he usually carried full upon the back of Billy's head. It was that blow that saved the mate's life, for when Billy came to he found himself in a dark and smelly hole, chained and padlocked to a heavy stanchion.
They kept Billy there for a week; but every day the captain visited him in an attempt to show him the error of his way. The medium used by the skipper for impressing his ideas of discipline upon Billy was a large, hard stick. At the end of the week it was necessary to carry Billy above to keep the rats from devouring47 him, for the continued beatings and starvation had reduced him to little more than an unconscious mass of raw and bleeding meat.
“There,” remarked the skipper, as he viewed his work by the light of day, “I guess that fellow'll know his place next time an officer an' a gentleman speaks to him.”
That Billy survived is one of the hitherto unrecorded miracles of the power of matter over mind. A man of intellect, of imagination, a being of nerves, would have succumbed48 to the shock alone; but Billy was not as these. He simply lay still and thoughtless, except for half-formed ideas of revenge, until Nature, unaided, built up what the captain had so ruthlessly torn down.
Ten days after they brought him up from the hold Billy was limping about the deck of the Halfmoon doing light manual labor49. From the other sailors aboard he learned that he was not the only member of the crew who had been shanghaied. Aside from a half-dozen reckless men from the criminal classes who had signed voluntarily, either because they could not get a berth50 upon a decent ship, or desired to flit as quietly from the law zone of the United States as possible, not a man was there who had been signed regularly.
They were as tough and vicious a lot as Fate ever had foregathered in one forecastle, and with them Billy Byrne felt perfectly51 at home. His early threats of awful vengeance52 to be wreaked53 upon the mate and skipper had subsided54 with the rough but sensible advice of his messmates. The mate, for his part, gave no indication of harboring the assault that Billy had made upon him other than to assign the most dangerous or disagreeable duties of the ship to the mucker whenever it was possible to do so; but the result of this was to hasten Billy's nautical55 education, and keep him in excellent physical trim.
All traces of alcohol had long since vanished from the young man's system. His face showed the effects of his enforced abstemiousness56 in a marked degree. The red, puffy, blotchy57 complexion58 had given way to a clear, tanned skin; bright eyes supplanted59 the bleary, bloodshot things that had given the bestial60 expression to his face in the past. His features, always regular and strong, had taken on a peculiarly refined dignity from the salt air, the clean life, and the dangerous occupation of the deep-sea sailor, that would have put Kelly's gang to a pinch to have recognized their erstwhile crony had he suddenly appeared in their midst in the alley61 back of the feed-store on Grand Avenue.
With the new life Billy found himself taking on a new character. He surprised himself singing at his work—he whose whole life up to now had been devoted62 to dodging63 honest labor—whose motto had been: The world owes me a living, and it's up to me to collect it. Also, he was surprised to discover that he liked to work, that he took keen pride in striving to outdo the men who worked with him, and this spirit, despite the suspicion which the captain entertained of Billy since the episode of the forecastle, went far to making his life more endurable on board the Halfmoon, for workers such as the mucker developed into are not to be sneezed at, and though he had little idea of subordination it was worth putting up with something to keep him in condition to work. It was this line of reasoning that saved Billy's skull64 on one or two occasions when his impudence65 had been sufficient to have provoked the skipper to a personal assault upon him under ordinary conditions; and Mr. Ward, having tasted of Billy's medicine once, had no craving66 for another encounter with him that would entail67 personal conflict.
The entire crew was made up of ruffians and unhung murderers, but Skipper Simms had had little experience with seamen of any other ilk, so he handled them roughshod, using his horny fist, and the short, heavy stick that he habitually68 carried, in lieu of argument; but with the exception of Billy the men all had served before the mast in the past, so that ship's discipline was to some extent ingrained in them all.
Enjoying his work, the life was not an unpleasant one for the mucker. The men of the forecastle were of the kind he had always known—there was no honor among them, no virtue69, no kindliness70, no decency71. With them Billy was at home—he scarcely missed the old gang. He made his friends among them, and his enemies. He picked quarrels, as had been his way since childhood. His science and his great strength, together with his endless stock of underhand tricks brought him out of each encounter with fresh laurels72. Presently he found it difficult to pick a fight—his messmates had had enough of him. They left him severely73 alone.
These ofttimes bloody74 battles engendered75 no deep-seated hatred76 in the hearts of the defeated. They were part of the day's work and play of the half-brutes that Skipper Simms had gathered together. There was only one man aboard whom Billy really hated. That was the passenger, and Billy hated him, not because of anything that the man had said or done to Billy, for he had never even so much as spoken to the mucker, but because of the fine clothes and superior air which marked him plainly to Billy as one of that loathed78 element of society—a gentleman.
Billy hated everything that was respectable. He had hated the smug, self-satisfied merchants of Grand Avenue. He had writhed79 in torture at the sight of every shiny, purring automobile80 that had ever passed him with its load of well-groomed men and women. A clean, stiff collar was to Billy as a red rag to a bull. Cleanliness, success, opulence81, decency, spelled but one thing to Billy—physical weakness; and he hated physical weakness. His idea of indicating strength and manliness82 lay in displaying as much of brutality83 and uncouthness84 as possible. To assist a woman over a mud hole would have seemed to Billy an acknowledgement of pusillanimity—to stick out his foot and trip her so that she sprawled85 full length in it, the hall-mark of bluff manliness. And so he hated, with all the strength of a strong nature, the immaculate, courteous86, well-bred man who paced the deck each day smoking a fragrant87 cigar after his meals.
Inwardly he wondered what the dude was doing on board such a vessel88 as the Halfmoon, and marveled that so weak a thing dared venture among real men. Billy's contempt caused him to notice the passenger more than he would have been ready to admit. He saw that the man's face was handsome, but there was an unpleasant shiftiness to his brown eyes; and then, entirely89 outside of his former reasons for hating him, Billy came to loathe77 him intuitively, as one who was not to be trusted. Finally his dislike for the man became an obsession90. He haunted, when discipline permitted, that part of the vessel where he would be most likely to encounter the object of his wrath91, hoping, always hoping, that the “dude” would give him some slight pretext92 for “pushing in his mush,” as Billy would so picturesquely93 have worded it.
He was loitering about the deck for this purpose one evening when he overheard part of a low-voiced conversation between the object of his wrath and Skipper Simms—just enough to set him to wondering what was doing, and to show him that whatever it might be it was crooked94 and that the immaculate passenger and Skipper Simms were both “in on it.”
He questioned “Bony” Sawyer and “Red” Sanders, but neither had nearly as much information as Billy himself, and so the Halfmoon came to Honolulu and lay at anchor some hundred yards from a stanch46, trim, white yacht, and none knew, other than the Halfmoon's officers and her single passenger, the real mission of the harmless-looking little brigantine.
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1
chagrined
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| adj.懊恼的，苦恼的v.使懊恼，使懊丧，使悔恨( chagrin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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bunks
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| n.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的名词复数 )；空话，废话v.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 )；空话，废话 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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14
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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percolate
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| v.过滤，渗透 | |
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bluster
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| v.猛刮；怒冲冲的说；n.吓唬，怒号；狂风声 | |
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18
bluffed
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| 以假象欺骗，吹牛( bluff的过去式和过去分词 )； 以虚张声势找出或达成 | |
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19
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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22
nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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23
befuddled
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| adj.迷糊的，糊涂的v.使烂醉( befuddle的过去式和过去分词 )；使迷惑不解 | |
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24
wriggle
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| v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒 | |
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gangster
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| n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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brawler
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| 争吵者，打架者 | |
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contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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meager
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| adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的 | |
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ethics
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| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
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31
squealed
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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scrapping
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| 刮，切除坯体余泥 | |
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ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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37
screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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38
crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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39
rammed
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| v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
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40
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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41
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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42
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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43
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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44
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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45
punctuate
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| vt.加标点于；不时打断 | |
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46
stanch
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| v.止住（血等）；adj.坚固的；坚定的 | |
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47
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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48
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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49
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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50
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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51
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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52
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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53
wreaked
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| 诉诸（武力），施行（暴力），发（脾气）( wreak的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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55
nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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56
abstemiousness
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| n.适中，有节制 | |
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57
blotchy
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| adj.有斑点的，有污渍的；斑污 | |
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58
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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59
supplanted
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| 把…排挤掉，取代( supplant的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
bestial
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| adj.残忍的；野蛮的 | |
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61
alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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62
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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63
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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64
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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65
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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66
craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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entail
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| vt.使承担，使成为必要，需要 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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laurels
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| n.桂冠，荣誉 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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loathe
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| v.厌恶，嫌恶 | |
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loathed
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
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writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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opulence
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| n.财富，富裕 | |
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82
manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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uncouthness
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sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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obsession
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| n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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picturesquely
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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