That means that there is so much more work to be done by the others.
Franz deliberately shirked. And, as far as I could see, he purposely
got in bad with the mates, under whom he had approximately sixty days
more of pulling and hauling, going up aloft, scrubbing, and chipping to
do. I was puzzled at the steadfast, deliberate malingering of the man.
The crew all hated him, too. I have seen the man at the wheel
deliberately deflect the ship from its course, in order to bring the
wind against the mutineer's belly, hoping to have him blown overboard
while he was running aloft....
And one night, in the forecastle, someone hurled a shoe at him. A blow
so savagely well-aimed, that when he came running aft, howling with pain
(for, for all his obstinacy, he seemed to lack courage)--to complain of
the outrage, to Schantze--his eye popped out so far that it seemed as if
leaping out of its socket! It was ghastly and bloody like a butchered
heart.
Later, I asked the sailors why this had been done to Franz. And Klumpf
said--
"We had a scuffle over something. We were all taking it friendly ... and
Franz bit Klaus through the hand, almost ... then someone threw a shoe
and hit him in the eye"....
* * * * *
In about a week, after his eye had healed just a little, I drew Franz
apart. We sat down together on the main hatch.
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