"You can't go through life with that there tin-kettle tied to your tail.

Fust one as see yer will be calling, `Mad dog.'" By this time the watch had come to see what was going on, and I now began to feel sorry for the Chinaman.
"Here, Ching," I said.

"Come down below." But he was too much alarmed for the moment to listen to my words, expecting every moment as he was that some one would make a snatch at his tail, to obviate which accident he was now holding the canister tightly beneath his arm, and looking wildly round for a way to escape.
"Hadn't we better have it took off, sir ?" said Tom Jecks, and there was a roar of laughter.

"Let's ketch him and take him to the doctor." "No, no!" cried Ching, dodging round me again, for Tom Jecks, to the delight of the others, made a snatch at him.
"You'll be a deal more comfortable, messmate--you know you will.

Here, let's have it ?" Tom Jecks made another snatch at him, but Ching avoided it, and to save him from further annoyance I too made a snatch.
Poor fellow, interpreter though he was, he misinterpreted my intentions.
He tore away from my grasp and made a rush forward, but several men were coming in that direction, and he dashed back to find himself faced by Tom Jecks again.