"All Hands And Feet--and believe me, he's there! He isn't a man,
Matt, he's a bear--he's a devil, and if he ever gets his hands on you
it's Kitty bar the door! Get into the gloves, boy, get into the
gloves. You could smash that big Swede to your heart's content, but
you wouldn't even stagger him with the first few punches. You'd just
break your hands on him before you could knock him out and then he'd
walk over you. Into the gloves, Matt, and save your knuckles."

"All right, Mike. Don't be in such a hurry. Call a couple of hands
and let down the companion ladder so the special messenger can bring
his dunnage aboard. I'll fight him after I've finished this
chapter--that is, if he insists on being accommodated."

"He'll insist," Mr. Murphy declared. "He likes it, and the reason he
likes it is because he does it well, and that's the reason he's here.
He won't waste any ceremony on you, Matt. He's always up and doing."

Matt finished his chapter of Sinful Peck just as All Hands And Feet,
followed by a Cape Town gentleman and two Kru boys, bearing
respectively a brown canvas telescope basket and a sea chest, bore
down upon him, convoyed by Mr. Murphy.

"A big Swede skipper," Matt Peasley soliloquized, as he eyed the
stranger with alert interest. "Thunder, but he's big. He's the
biggest thing I ever saw walking on two legs, with the exception of a
trick elephant." He rose, put down his book and advanced to greet his
visitors. While All Hands And Feet was still fully thirty feet from
him he bawled aloud:

"You ban Mr. Peasley?"