194 THE GAM. 



claws 'round in them black grounds, an' fishes out 

 a long bit o' salt pork rind, an' holds it up front 

 o' their crazy top-lights. 



" Then you ought to seen the hurricane. That 

 shiny pork knocked them Ay-rabs alow an' aloft. 

 They was hit with the horrors. Their head-lights 

 stuck out so you could hang your hat on 'em. 

 They turned from brown to white. 



" An' afore you could sing the first line of 

 ( Jack Robinson ' the whole school of 'em tumbled 

 up like the watch below when ' all hands' is called. 

 Out them Ay-rabs bounced — oh, boys, it was 

 worth a bottle o' close-reef to see 'em! They 

 scudded for the ship's side like a dozen white 

 yachts in a gale, and there they tickled their hot- 

 copper gullets with their finger-ends so as to git 

 clear o' that ' much good ' coffee ! An' mateys, 

 that ended the coffee nuisance for good an' all, / 

 tell you." 



No sooner was the story finished than there was 

 a prodigious banging on the forecastle scuttle, 

 followed by a sharp call of command. The 

 stranger crew were summoned on deck to return 

 to their ship, and the gam was over. 



I have ever since pitied the Moslems of Johanna 

 for the treatment they must have got from the 

 whalemen who were so elaborately coached, that 

 night, in the Clara BelVs forecastle. 



