"
"All right, Mac," replied Mr. Gibney, in the tone one uses when
humouring a baby. "Set 'em up if it'll make you feel more
cheerful. Still, I don't see why you want to go actin' so foolish
over nothin'."
"Well, Gib," replied the engineer, "I may be crazy, but I ain't
no fool, and if there's a dead whale around the ship, I can come
pretty near smellin' it. I tell you, Gib, that Tabu-Tabu nigger
had a look in his eye for all the world like a cur dog lickin' a
bone. I ain't takin' no chances. My old man used to say: 'Bart,
whatever you do, allers have an anchor out to windward.'"
"By the left hind leg of the Great Sacred Bull," snapped Captain
Scraggs, "if you ain't enough to precipitate war."
"War," replied McGuffey, "is my long suit--particularly war with
native niggers. I just naturally crave to punch the ear of
anything darker than a Portugee. Remember how I cleaned out the
police department of Panama?"
"Mount the guns if you're goin' to, Mac. If not, for the love of
the Lord don't be demoralizin' the crew with this talk of war.
All I ask is that you set the guns up after I've finished my
business here with Tabu-Tabu. He's been on a war vessel, and
knows what guns are, and if he saw you mountin' them it might
break up our friendly relations.
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