This was too much for me. Dimly realizing that there was a psychic, if not moral, sympathy between us, yet unwilling to defy _this_ THING that troubled him, or even to question him, I sang out to the man at the wheel, whom I could just perceive through a crack left by the partly opened hatch. "On deck, there!" I called. "On deck, you at the wheel! Tell the skipper that this man down here has the jimjams, and needs attention." He answered me, and then I heard his voice, calling forward. Soon the captain appeared, dropping down the hatch, and stepping quickly out of our reach. In spite of his demonstration with the pistol, he was a kindly faced man of about fifty, slight and stoop-shouldered, a man that any troubled soul might appeal to. "What seems to be the matter here?" he asked, looking us over. "D. T.'s, captain," I answered, pointing to Fred. "He needs a drink, and then some bromide, or whatever you have for the symptoms." "But _you_ seem to be all right." "All but the scalp wound from your belaying pin, captain," I answered. "It came too late, from what I have heard." "Yes, you had killed my first mate before I could reach you. I did not want to shoot. What manner of men are you, who can kill with your hands? My mate is dead; my second mate unable to speak, scarcely able to breathe. How did you do it?" "As for me, captain," I answered, "I did not know I was doing it. He struck me in my watch below; I wasn't on deck. I never was struck before in my life, not even as a boy. And when I have been aft, I never needed to. Of course, I'm sorry if I have killed him." "You have," he responded mournfully. "We gave him sea burial at noon. Have you been aft?" "As second mate in schooners. I am not a good navigator. My friend, here, my playmate, schoolmate, and townsman, is a graduate of Annapolis, and if you can get the jimjams out of him he can navigate; for, captain"--I looked him squarely in the face--"I understand your predicament." "I will think," he answered, after a pause. "I will admit this, now--that you were both sorely provoked, and that I am sorry I shipped such mates. Like you, I never struck a blow or received one in all my going to sea. But I want to know how this young man mastered my second mate." He looked at Fred, still brushing his knees, and staring into the dark corners. The query was repeated before Fred answered. "Oh," he said, as he raised his manacled hands, and pressed his fingers into his throat below the ears. "I did this. I've studied it, and when I felt his thumbs in my eyes I gave it to him. He will recover speech and breathing in time." "Jiu jitsu, captain," I added, in explanation. "I've heard of the trick. They teach a great many things at Annapolis not down in the curriculum." What the captain might have said in response was prevented by Fred's plea for a drink, and the sad-faced man withdrew, promising to send the steward.