"Just fancy," said Bertie, as he felt a longing for the cruise to be over. "And that's why they die of dysentery nowadays," the mate added.
"The government said he wasn't justified in shooting after they'd taken to the water," the skipper explained. Then they jumped into the water and started to swim for it, and being mad, he got half a dozen more. He dropped them as they went over the rail, and he dropped them as fast as they picked up their paddles. He pumped one rifle till it got so hot he couldn't hold it, then he pumped the other. He was the sole survivor, and you can't blame him for being mad. The mate grabbed three cartridge belts and two Winchesters and skinned up to the cross-trees. First thing the mate knew, the boson and the crew were killed in the first rush. The mate and boson, with about fifteen of the crew-Samoans and Tongans-were on board.
The captain, the agent, and the supercargo were ashore in the two boats. "She carried five white men besides a government agent. "Yes, look at the Princess and that Yankee mate," the skipper took up the tale. A white man hasn't a chance to defend himself from the niggers." Jacobs, "there's altogether too many accidental drownings anyway. I thought the skipper of the Arla had died of dysentery when I took his billet. What they draw the line at is being murdered. But if the man merely dies of sickness, it's all right. The company has to pay through the nose for another man to take the job. It's getting harder every day to sign on white men. These islands have got a bad enough name as it is. The skipper openly admired his guest's acumen, stiffened himself to make indignant denial, then gracefully surrendered. "And all that dysentery, you know, that's all rot, just like the accidental drownings," Bertie continued. The skipper displayed quick vexation that the log had been left lying about. "I say, you know," Bertie said next day to Captain Hansen.