The Twentieth Century 201 



both to everybody but Mush and me. We looked at each other stupidly. Then 

 I noticed a pale, rangy guy from the black gang who seemed to get paler. 



The third ouer ( Pat and Birdneck were the other two ) spoke up. He was 

 the one everybody called the Maverick. 



"Who's d'wictims? Hey, you guy wit d'glasses. You ever been across d'htne?" 



"What hne?" 



"D'Equator." 



I said, "No. I never — " 



"AU right. We'U take care of you," and he laughed in that nasty way he had 

 and slapped the pale, rangy guy on the back in glee. "Hey — wait a minute 

 — you ain't eider, have you? You was saying you had dat reg'lar run t'Nor- 

 way — " 



The pale guy gulped and said, "No — I ain't never been South — " 



"O-o-h boyl anudder wictitn And you, blubber-mouth." He was talking 



to Mush. "You too — " 



I asked the white-haired guy: 



"What's this Equator stuff?" 



"Oh — it's nothin' if they ain't rough. . . ." 



The Maverick heard that. 



"Siu-e we won't be rough — haw-haw. Wait'U Ol' Fadder Neptune gives 

 him a shave and wait'U Fadder Neptime's red-headed daughter gives him a 

 kiss — " 



The Bos'n had come down to the deck. The hilarity quieted down a little, 

 though nothing could hold that Maverick guy now that he had some nasty 

 business planned. He was noisy and swaggered around. . . . 



The white-haired guy, Birdneck, and I were assigned to the same station. 

 As we stood there, I took up this Equator initiation ceremony again. Frankly, 

 I was worried. It sounded like the sort of thing I'd read about and expected 

 before I came aboard, but I didn't want any of it now. I liked the quiet un- 

 eventful days and pleasant nights as they were. 



I nervously asked the white-haired guy, "What do they do — what's this 

 stuff the Maverick was talking about?" 



The old fellow said quietly, "Oh, it's nuthin. Just a little fun; don't worry 

 about it. On the big passenger liners they make a whole business of it and 

 everybody has a good time. But on a little ship hke this — Some of these 

 fellers sometimes get rough. Yes, I've seen it happen. Sometimes some of the 

 wüd fellers do something and somebody gets hurt. I've seen nice boys hurt 

 pretty bad — " 



His voice was soothing, and he shook his head slowly. 



"Yeah," came from Birdneck, who stood there with his hand on the brass 

 handle of the hydrant to which we'd attached a dry canvas hose. Birdneck 

 was to txurn the water on, we to play the hose come the day when the ship 

 burns up. 



