"He's like a bull whale in a flurry," said one who had been whaling. "Now my notion is that the skipper kin blaspheme if he wants to." The _Palembang_ was visibly herself and no other vessel by this time, and she carried all she could stand. "I've half a notion to have the t'gall'n-sails set," said Banks, looking up aloft. "And if we weren't overhauling her twenty-three to the dozen, damme, but I would!" For the _Palembang_ showed nothing above her reefed topsails, and the foresail had a reef in it, and the _Simoom_ came after her like the inside edge of a cyclone. "Gimme my trumpet," cried Banks. "Mr. Green, take the wheel, and run her as close as maybe." And the second mate stood at the main-topsail halliards. "_Palembang_ ahoy!" yelled Banks through his trumpet as he came tearing up on the weather side of his enemy's ship. "Where the blue blazes are you coming to?" shrieked Spiller, who was both drunk and angry. "Passing you as if you was standing still, you low, uneducated swine," said Banks. "And I could do it under jury rig." "What about them rocks?" jeered Spiller through his trumpet. "What's the price of vigias, you notorious old liar, you disgrace to the perfession?" They were close alongside now, not half a cable's length apart; a good cricketer could have shied a cricket ball the distance easily. "Leggo the main-topsail halliards," said Banks, and then to the surprise of his crew and the utter astonishment of Spiller he poured out a torrent of the most blood-curdling abuse which had ever defiled the Indian or any other ocean. "You think I'm soft, you dog," he boomed through his spurt of blasphemy, "and reckon because I've got notions of decency I'm to be trod on. Run on my rocks and sink and burn." His voice rose to a scream and cracked. He tried to speak, but tried in vain. "Mr. Green, here," he whispered, and leaving the wheel to the man he had displaced, the mate jumped to the lee poop rail. "Tell him he's no sailor; my voice is gone. Say he's a--oh, tell him anything you feel." Green did so, and satisfied himself and Banks and the entire crew. And then, seeing Wilson, he gave him a friendly bellow. "What cheer, Wilson!" And hoisting the topsails, they ran on, leaving Spiller choking with helpless rage. As it grew darker and they dropped the _Palembang_ they picked up the mainsail, and shortened down for the night. "We ain't in no hurry," whispered Banks, "and to-morrow we'll be up with my rocks, if I've hit it off right." He was now sombre and dignified, and spoke with particular grammatical and moral accuracy. Not the ghost of a damn issued from his lips. He reproved Green for swearing, and held a service in the cabin, much to the disgust of the entire ship, as it wasn't Sunday. Perhaps to punish himself, for he always liked to stand well with the crowd, he gave them no grog after it.