"Get away aft! You're
a lumping useless incumbrance! But by thunder! I'll give you two for
every one you try to give me! So stand by!"
And apparently half mad with his rage, he staggered away in the very
direction in which he had told me to go, and stood near the wheel,
glaring upon me with a white face, which looked indescribably
malevolent in the fur cap and ear-protectors that ornamented it.
I was terribly vexed by this rudeness, which I was powerless to resist,
and regretted my indiscretion in entering the forecastle after the
politic resolutions I had formed. However, Captain Coxon's ferocity
was nothing new to me; truly I believed he was not quite right in his
mind, and expected, as in former cases, that he would come round a bit
by-and-by when his insane temper had passed. Still his insinuations
were highly dangerous, not to speak of their offensiveness. It was no
joke to be charged, even by a madman, with striving to arouse the crew
to mutiny. Nevertheless I tried to console myself as best I could by
reflecting that he could not prove his charges; that I need only to
endure his insolence for a few weeks, and that there was always a law
to vindicate me and punish him, should his evil temper betray him into
any acts of cruelty against me.
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