Why don't you
turn to and behave and be treated decently?"
"No," he replied, with a curious note of strength in his voice, "the
worse I'm treated the more damages I can collect. I'm going to make it a
real case of brutal treatment before I leave this old tub."
"But they--they'll--they might kill you!"
"Not much ... those days are about gone ... for a man who knows how to
handle himself, as I do....
"Well, let us thank God," he finished, "for the Sailors' Aid Society and
the dear old maids at Sydney!"
I walked off, thinking. Franz had sworn me not to tell. Yet I was
tempted to. It would get me in right with Captain Schantze.
* * * * *
We shaped to the Cape of Good Hope with great, southern jumps. We were
striking far south for the strong, steady winds.
* * * * *
"There was a damned English ship, the _Lord Summerville_, that left New
York about the same time we did ... she's a sky-sailer ... we mustn't
let her beat us into Sydney."
"Why not, Captain?"
"An Englishman beat a German!" the captain spat, "fui! We're going to
beat England yet at everything ... already we're taking their
world-trade away from them ... and some day we'll beat them at sea and
on land, both."
"In a war, sir?"
"Yes, in a war ... in a great, big war! It will have to come to that,
Johann, my boy.
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