"I'm no nigger, and I'm not crazy!" shouted Mayo.
The swinging lantern in the companionway lighted him dimly. But in the
gloom his dusky hue was only the more accentuated. His excitement seemed
that of a man whose wits had been touched.
"I knew it was a trick. But what was the trick?" he demanded, starting
toward Bradish, his clutching hands outspread.
Captain Downs kicked at this obstreperous sailor, and at the same time
fanned a blow at his head with open palm.
Mayo avoided both the foot and the hand. "What does the law say about
striking a sailor, captain? Hold on, there! I'm just as good a man as
you are. Don't you tell those men to lay hands on me." He backed away
from the sailors who came running aft, with the second mate marshaling
them. He stripped up his sleeve and held his arm across the radiance of
the binnacle light. "That's a white man's skin, isn't it?" he demanded.
"What kind of play-acting is all this?" asked Old Mull, with astonished
indignation.
In that crisis Mayo controlled his tongue after a mighty effort to
steady himself. He was prompted to obey his mood and announce his
identity with all the fury that was in him. But here stood the man who
had served as one of the tools of his enemies, whoever they were. For
his weapon against this man Mayo had only a few words of gossip which
had been dropped in an unwary moment; he realized his position; he
regretted his passionate haste. He was not ready to put himself into the
power of his enemies by telling this man who he was; he remembered that
he was running away from the law.
Bradish gaped at this intruder without seeming to understand what it all
meant.
"Passengers better get below out of the muss," advised Captain Downs.
"Here's a crazy nigger, mate. Grab him and tie him up."
Mayo backed to the rack at the rail and pulled out two belaying-pins,
mighty weapons, one for each hand.
Bradish hurried away into the depths of the house, manifestly glad to
get out from underfoot.
"Don't you allow those niggers to lay their hands on me," repeated the
man at bay. "Captain Downs, let me have a word to you in private." He
had desperately decided on making a confidant of one of his kind. He
bitterly needed the help a master mariner could give him.
"Get at him!" roared the skipper. "Go in, you niggers!"