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"In good time, the Town-Ho reached her port a savage, solitary place where no civilized creature resided. There, headed by the Lakeman, all but five or six of the foremastmen deliberately deserted among the palms; eventually, as it turned out, seizing a large double war-canoe of the savages, and setting sail for some other harbor.
"The Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the while keeping his eye on the Captain, and jerking out such sentences as these: 'It's not our fault; we didn't want it; I told him to take his hammer away; it was boy's business; he might have known me before this; I told him not to prick the buffalo; I believe I have broken a finger here against his cursed jaw; ain't those mincing knives down in the forecastle there, men? look to those handspikes, my hearties.
Yet was this Nantucketer a man with some good-hearted traits; and this Lakeman, a mariner, who though a sort of devil indeed, might yet by inflexible firmness, only tempered by that common decency of human recognition which is the meanest slave's right; thus treated, this Steelkilt had long been retained harmless and docile.
"'Like a lanyard for your bag; but it's an odd one, seems to me. "'Yes, rather oddish, said the Lakeman, holding it at arm's length before him; 'but I think it will answer. Shipmate, I haven't enough twine, have you any? "But there was none in the forecastle. "'Then I must get some from old Rad; and he rose to go aft. "'You don't mean to go a begging to HIM! said a sailor. "'Why not?
Now, gentlemen, in square-sail brigs and three-masted ships, well nigh as large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old Callao to far Manilla; this Lakeman, in the land-locked heart of our America, had yet been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting impressions popularly connected with the open ocean.
"For a moment the exhausted mutineer made a tremulous motion of his cramped jaws, and then painfully twisting round his head, said in a sort of hiss, 'What I say is this and mind it well if you flog me, I murder you! "'Say ye so? then see how ye frighten me' and the Captain drew off with the rope to strike. "'Best not, hissed the Lakeman.
To this, Radney replied, with an oath, in a most domineering and outrageous manner unconditionally reiterating his command; meanwhile advancing upon the still seated Lakeman, with an uplifted cooper's club hammer which he had snatched from a cask near by.
Now, gentlemen, in square-sail brigs and three-masted ships, well-nigh as large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old Callao to far Manilla; this Lakeman, in the land-locked heart of our America, had yet been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting impressions popularly connected with the open ocean.
"'A pretty scholar, laughed the Lakeman. 'Adios, Senor! and leaping into the sea, he swam back to his comrades. "Watching the boat till it was fairly beached, and drawn up to the roots of the cocoa-nut trees, Steelkilt made sail again, and in due time arrived at Tahiti, his own place of destination.
With one foot on each prow of the yoked war-canoes, the Lakeman laughed him to scorn; assuring him that if the pistol so much as clicked in the lock, he would bury him in bubbles and foam. "'What do you want of me? cried the captain. "'Where are you bound? and for what are you bound? demanded Steelkilt; 'no lies. "'I am bound to Tahiti for more men. "'Very good.
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