"Ain't you got no fight at all in your shriveled-up body?" Dan taunted as Larry finished. "You're a disgrace to Ireland, that's what you are." Larry, still patient, turned away. Dan sprang to him and spun the little man about. "Where's the tongue in your ugly mouth?" Dan was shaking with rage. "I'll not be havin' the likes of you followin' me from ship to ship, an' sniffin' at my heels ashore. I won't stand for it no longer, do you hear? Do you think I need a nurse? Now say you'll leave this ship when we makes port, or I'll break every bone in you." Dan towered above Larry, his arm drawn back ready to strike. Every man in the room stopped work to watch the outcome of the row. At the beginning of the tirade Larry's thin shoulders had straightened; he raised his head; his lower jaw, undershot, was set hard. The light from the boiler showed his near-sighted eyes steady on Sullivan, unafraid. "Get on with your work, an' don't be a fool, Dan," he said quietly. "A fool, am I!" Dan's knotted fist flashed to within an inch of Larry's jaw. The Bunker Mouse did not flinch. For a moment the big stoker's arm quivered to strike, then slowly fell. "You ain't worth smashin'," Sullivan snarled, and turned away. "Well, what d'yer know about that!" the new stoker cried. "It's that way all the time," he was answered; "there ain't a trip Dan don't ball the Mouse out to a fare-you-well; but he never lays hand to 'im. None of us knows why." "You don't? Well, I do. The big slob's yeller, an' I'll show 'im up." The stoker crossed to Sullivan. "See here, Bo, why don't you take on a man your size?" He thrust his face close to Dan's and shouted the answer to his question: "I'll tell you why. You ain't got sand enough." Dan's teeth snapped closed, then parted to grin at his challenger. "Do you think you're big enough?" The joy of battle was in his growl. "Yes, I do." The man put up his hands. Instantly Dan's left broke down the guard; his right fist landed squarely on the stoker's jaw, sending him reeling to the bunker wall, where he fell. It was a clean knock-out. "Go douse your friend with a pail of water, Mouse." Dan, still grinning, picked up his shovel and went to work. * * * When Neville's watch went off duty, Larry found the sea no rougher than on countless other runs he had made along the Atlantic coast. The wind had freshened to a strong gale, but he reached the forecastle with no great difficulty.