helpless than if they had been drunk. At stopping time they breathed sighs of relief, as much as to say, “That’s the end,” and then for a moment everything went blank.
Just as they were clearing up the boss came along and thundered at them, “Work until nine o’clock to-night.”
Once again they all dragged themselves up like figures in a slow-motion picture. They had no energy left to do anything else.
Sometimes the boss would lecture them. “D’you understand? We can’t come back here a second time or a third time. And we can’t get the crabs just at any time we please. Just because you’ve worked ten hours or thirteen hours in a day, if you go stopping exactly at that, it’d be a hell of a mess. This work is different. D’ye get me? But to make up for it, when there are no crabs, it’s almost a cruel waste the easy time you have.
“The Bolshies, no matter how many shoals of fish come right in front of their eyes, if time is up they’ll throw up the work. That’s what they’re like and that’s why Russia’s like she is. You Japanese men must never go copying them.”
“What’s he talking about, the damn fool?” thought some and did not listen. On hearing the boss’s words the majority felt that Japan was indeed a great country. The hardships they suffered every day seemed somehow heroic, and that was at least some consolation for them.
While working on deck they saw a cruiser moving across the horizon towards the south. They could see the Japanese flag waving at the stern. Their
