OF THE SOUTH SEAS 107 



The mate looked at him angrily, but uncertainly. He 

 heard the laughter and the cheers of the bystanders on 

 the quay and in the embowered street. He looked down 

 at the deck, and he caught sight of a capstan-bar, which 

 he gazed at longingly. Any blow would send him to 

 prison, but why not for a sheep instead of a lamb? 



He hesitated, and lifted his eves to the black brow of 

 the skipper, lowering within touch. 



"Make fast your line about that cannon!" said the 

 master, sharply. 



The sailors waited joyfully for the fray, and the Rara- 

 tonga stevedores on other vessels stopped their work. 

 But nothing happened. 



"Aye, aye, sir," said the mate, and shouted the order 

 to the men ashore. The captain regarded him balefully, 

 muttered a few words, and returned to the club for a Dr. 

 Funk. That medical man ranked here above Colonel 

 Rickey, who invented the gin-rickey in America. 



Herr Funk was better known in the Cercle Bougain- 

 ville than Charcot or Lister or Darwin. The doctor 

 part of the drink's name made it seem almost like a pre- 

 scription, and often, when amateurs sought to evade a 

 second or third, the old-timers laughed at their fears of 

 ill results, and said : 



"That old Doctor Funk knew what he was about. 

 Why, he kept people alive on that mixture. It 's like 

 mother's milk." 



