"When he's got a broken back, too, eh?" said Mr. Winthrop. "A broken back!" "Something of the sort. But I'll tell you all about it. We've been away from home now about nine months, and the sailors get fourteen dollars a month, so they've got near a hundred dollars due them. Sailors are plenty here now, and wages are only twelve dollars. Our ship can't get a freight at present. I don't know how true it is, but one of our consignee's clerks told me that last time our old man was here, he cheated his broker out of a commission; and this same man is now doing all he can to prevent the ship from chartering. He gives bad reports about the seaworthiness of the ship, I believe; but it's a lie if he does, for she's as able a craft as there is in these waters; I don't care where the next comes from. When the old man found he'd got to stay here some time, he wanted to get rid of his crew, but the consul wouldn't let him pay them off, unless he gave them three month's extra wages, and he thought it would be a nice thing if he could make them run away, and put a thousand dollars or so in his own pocket, or his owner's, I don't know which. So about a month ago he began to work them up. He made us cockbill the lower and topsail-yards, and then the sailors had to scrub them with a piece of canvas and a bucketful of salt water, beginning at the lower yard-arm and scrubbing above them all the time as they crawled up. The water of course ran down on them, and six of them he made us keep soaking and steaming for about a week. This made most of 'em sick, and Saturday night four of 'em came to the old man and told him if he'd give them ten dollars apiece, they'd go ashore. This he did, and made four hundred dollars out of the operation; and I tell you what, if ever men earned their wages those fellows have done it since they've been aboard of that packet, for they've been worked like jackasses day and night. "The next week we drove five more out of the ship by hard work and poor grub. The old man was greatly tickled by his good luck, and he thought if he could get rid of one more he'd let the rest stay, because he thought the ship might get too bad a name if every one left.