forehead, observing at the same time that he hated going ashore
anyhow; while overtopping him Mr. Rout, without deigning a word, smoked
austerely, nursing his right elbow in the palm of his left hand.
Then Jukes was directed in the same subdued voice to keep the forward
'tween-deck clear of cargo. Two hundred coolies were going to be put
down there. The Bun Hin Company were sending that lot home. Twenty-five
bags of rice would be coming off in a sampan directly, for stores. All
seven-years'-men they were, said Captain MacWhirr, with a camphor-wood
chest to every man. The carpenter should be set to work nailing
three-inch battens along the deck below, fore and aft, to keep these
boxes from shifting in a sea-way. Jukes had better look to it at once.
"D'ye hear, Jukes?" This chinaman here was coming with the ship as far
as Fu-chau--a sort of interpreter he would be. Bun Hin's clerk he
was, and wanted to have a look at the space. Jukes had better take him
forward. "D'ye hear, Jukes?"

Jukes took care to punctuate these instructions in proper places with
the obligatory "Yes, sir," ejaculated without enthusiasm. His brusque
"Come along, John; make look see" set the Chinaman in motion at his
heels.

"Wanchee look see, all same look see can do," said Jukes, who having no
talent for foreign languages mangled the very pidgin-English cruelly. He
pointed at the open hatch. "Catchee number one piecie place to sleep in.
Eh?"

He was gruff, as became his racial superiority, but not unfriendly. The
Chinaman, gazing sad and speechless into the darkness of the hatchway,
seemed to stand at the head of a yawning grave.