Part 7 (1/2)
Skipper Si Theriere to his cabin and Mr Ward was fetching the brandy Asaw the skipper return to the upper deck with a rifle and two revolvers The sailors whoathered about the hatchway leading to the forecastle Soe with the prisoner
”Yeh better coet killed easy-like;” one called down to the mucker ”We're apt to muss yeh all up down there in the dark with these here axes and crowbars, an' then e send yeh home yer pore maon't know her little boy at all”
”Yeh come on down here, an' try mussin' ang wit one han' tied behin' et his barkers, Billy,” cried Bony Sawyer ”Yeh better coives yeh the chanct”
”Stan' nothin',” sneered Billy ”Swell chanct I'd have wit him an'
Squint Eye holdin' court over me Not on yer life, Bony I'm here, an'
here I stays till I croaks, but yeh better believe inks are et hurted An' anudder ting I'oin' to put a few of deinks in de cabin wise to where dey stands wit one anudder If I don't start sooes out me name's not Billy Byrne”
At this juncture Skipper Sione to his cabin to fetch He handed one to Bony Sawyer, another to Red Sanders and a third to a man by the name of Wison
”Now,Byrne up
Bring hi him”
No one made a move to enter the forecastle
”Go on now, ht he said 'we',” ree, turned to search out the offender from the several men behind him
”Who was that?” he roared ”Show me the blitherin' swab Jes' show him to me, I tell you, an I'll learn hiain to the men he had ordered into the forecastle after Billy Byrne, ”you cowardly landlubbers you, get below there quick afore I kick you below”
Still no one moved to obey hiain He fairly frothed at thethe o
”Why, Skipper,” spoke up Bony Sawyer, ”it's sure death for any oes below there It's easier, an' safer, to starve him out”
”Starve nothin',” shrieked Skipper Sioin' to sit quiet here for a week an' let any blanked wharf rat own that there fo'c's'le just because I got a lot o' white-livered cowards aboard? No sir! You're a-goin' down after that would-be bad man an' fetch hily toward the three who stood near the hatch, holding their fireare of Billy Byrne below
What would have happened had Skipper Si maneuver he had undertaken can never be known, for at this h the circle of edy
”What's up, sir?” he asked of Si that I can help you with?”
”Oh!” exclaimed the skipper; ”so you ain't dead after all, eh? Well that don't change the looks of things a et that ot the guts to go in after hiun, sir,” spoke up Wison, ”an' Gawd knows he be the one as'ud on'y be too glad for the chanct to use it”
”Let me see if I can't handle him, sir,” said Theriere to Skipper Simms
”We don't want to lose any lad to welcome this unexpected rescue from the predicament in which he had placed hiation of theas it was done without risk to his own skin
”Now if you'll go away, sir,” said Theriere, ”and order the men away I'll see what I can do”
Skipper Simms did as Theriere had requested, so that presently the officer stood alone beside the hatch Across the deck, aated to watch Theriere's operations, while beyond theedy that was unfolding before her upon this accursed vessel