"A straight punch!" he repeated, gazing with a species of solemn joy at
the men leaning against the rails forward. "They're a hard-bitten lot
from wot I've seen of 'em, an' they'll have to have it before they're
at sea with me very long. Won't they, Tagg?"
"They will," said. Tagg, eying the unconscious watch with equal fixity.
Dick went to his cabin firm in the belief that he would lie awake half
the night. But his brain soon refused to bother itself with problems
which time might solve in a manner not yet conceivable, and he slept
soundly until he was roused at an early hour. Day dawned bright and
clear. A pleasant northwesterly breeze swept the smoke haze from off
the town and kissed the blue waters of the land-locked harbor into
white-crested wavelets. He took the morning watch, from four o'clock
until eight, and all he had to do was to make sure that the men tried
to whiten decks already spotless, and cleaned brass which shone in the
sun the instant that luminary peeped over the shoulder of Notre Dame de
la Garde.
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