198 TEE CBUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT." 



noticeable that little love was lost between them. Why 

 this was 80, without anything definite to guide one's 

 reasoning, was difficult to understand, for a better sea- 

 man or a smarter whaleman than Mistah Jones did not 

 live — of that every one was quite sure. Still, there was 

 no gainsaying the fact that, churlish and morose as 

 our skipper's normal temper always was, he was never 

 80 much so as in his behaviour towards his able fourth 

 mate, who, being a man of fine, sensitive temper, chafed 

 under his unmerited treatment so much as to lose flesh, 

 becoming daily more silent, nervous, and depressed. 

 Still, there had never been an open rupture, nor did it 

 appear as if there would be, bo great was the power 

 Captain Slocum possessed over the will of everybody 

 on board. 



One night, however, as we were nearing the Kuriles 

 again, on our way south, leaving the Sea of Okhotsk, I was 

 sitting on the fore side of the try-works alone, meditating 

 upon what I would do when once I got clear of this 

 miserable business. Futile and foolish, no doubt, my 

 speculations were, but only in this way could I forget 

 for awhile my surroundings, since the inestimable comfort 

 of reading was denied me. I had been sitting thus 

 absorbed in thought for nearly an hour, when Goliath 

 came and seated himself by my side. We had always 

 been great friends, although, owing to the strict dis- 

 cipline maintained on board, it was not often we got a 

 chance for a "wee bit crack," as the Scotch say. Besides, 

 I was not in his watch, and even now he should rightly 

 have been below. He sat for a minute or two silent; 

 then, as if compelled to speak, he began in low, fierce 

 whispers to tell me of his miserable state of mind. At 

 last, after recapitulating many slights and insults he had 



