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It must have been Jack McVeigh, the superintendent of Molokai. "That was a ride! Leper horses, leper saddles, leper bridles, pitch-black darkness, whistling bullets, and a road none of the best. And the squarehead's horse was a mule, and he didn't know how to ride, either. But we made the whaleboat, and as we shoved off through the surf we could hear the horses coming down the hill from Kalaupapa.
You must have dreamed at your Sybeel understand?" was Newman's prompt reply. It took a moment to filter into the squarehead's mind. But he got it. "So ja, it ban dream; I see noddings," he said. "And you say nothing?" "Ja, even to mineself I say noddings," promised Lindquist. At the foc'sle door, Newman placed a detaining hand upon my shoulder and held me back.
"Ach Gott Lieber Gott," he said, and turned to show the gift to old Burke. Tears stood in the big "squarehead's" eyes; stood, and rolled unchecked down his fat cheeks. Tears of pleasure! Tears of pity! Stretched between his hands was a weather-beaten flag, its white emblem stained and begrimed by sea-water! A tattered square of blue silk the flag of the Merchants' Cup!
For a moment I had feared the captain would blame me for Newman's absence. With the little squarehead's fate fresh in my mind I had no desire to foul Yankee Swope's temper. But I could not help thinking about Newman. His going was a mystery, and, moreover, I was sorry to see the last of him. I wondered why he had not stayed. It was not fear that made him clear out; of that I was certain.
What does the fool up an' say, when the old man calls him Yonson, but 'Me name is Johnson, sir, an' then spells it out, letter for letter. Ye should iv seen the old man's face! I thought he'd let drive at him on the spot. He didn't, but he will, an' he'll break that squarehead's heart, or it's little I know iv the ways iv men on the ships iv the sea." Thomas Mugridge is becoming unendurable.
As Lindquist said to me, his blue eyes filled with pain and rage, "I know his mudder. When Nils ban so high, I yump him by mine knee." So it was that rage over the pitiful fate of their dear friend fanned into flame a spark of rebellion in the squarehead's disciplined souls, and caused them, eventually, to leap the barriers of race and caste prejudice and make common cause with the stiffs.
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