Quicksilver Part 76

"Yes, we shall, and a pound would be no end of good."

"But we would have to give up our voyage."

"No, we shouldn't. We'd make his boat do."

"But it's such a shabby one. We mustn't sell the boat, Bob."

"Look here! I'm captain, and I shall do as I like."

"Then I shall tell the man the boat isn't ours."

"If you do I'll knock your eye out. See if I don't," cried Bob fiercely.

Dexter felt hot, and his fists clenched involuntarily, but he sat very still.

"If I like to sell the boat I shall. We want the money, and the other boat will do."

"I say it won't," said Dexter sharply.

"Why, hullo!" cried Bob, laughing. "Here's cheek."

"I don't care, it would be stealing Sir James's boat, and I say it shan't be done."

"Oh, yer do--do yer!" said Bob, in a bullying tone.

"You won't be happy till I've given you such a licking as'll make yer teeth ache. Now, just you hold your row, and wait till I gets yer ash.o.r.e, and you shall have it. I'd give it to yer now, only I should knock yer overboard and drown'd yer, and I don't want to do that the first time."

Bob went on fis.h.i.+ng, and Dexter sat biting his lip, and feeling as he used to feel when he had had a caning for something he had not done.

"I shall do just as I please," said Bob, giving his head a waggle, as if to show his authority. "So you've got to sit still and look on. And if you says anything about where the boat came from, I shall tell the man you took it."

"And, if you do, I shall tell him it's a lie," cried Dexter, as fiercely as his companion; and just then he saw the man coming back.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

BOB ASKS A QUESTION.

"Caught any more?" said the man.

"Only one," replied Bob.

"Ah! I could show you a place where you could pull 'em up like anything. I say, though, the boat ain't worth a pound."

"Oh yes, she is," said Bob.

"Not a pound and the boat too."

"Yes, she is," said Bob, watching Dexter the while out of the corner of one eye.

"I wouldn't give a pound for her, only there's a man I know wants just such a boat."

Dexter sat up, looking very determined, and ready to speak when he thought that the proper time had come, and Bob kept on watching him.

"Look here!" said the man, "as you two's come out fis.h.i.+ng, I'll give you fifteen s.h.i.+llings and my boat, and that's more than yours is worth."

"No, you won't," said Bob.

"Well, sixteen, then. Come, that's a s.h.i.+lling too much."

Bob shook his head, hooked, and took a good-sized smelt off his hook.

"It's more than I care to give," said the man, who grew warm as Bob seemed cold. "There, I'll go another s.h.i.+lling--seventeen."

Bob still shook his head, and Dexter sat ready to burst out into an explosion of anger and threat if his companion sold the boat.

"Nineteen, then," said the man. "Nineteen, and my old un as rides the water like a duck. You won't?"

"No," said Bob.

"Well, then," cried the man, "I'm off."

"All right," said Bob coolly.

"There, I'll give you the twenty s.h.i.+llings, but you'll have to give me sixpence back. Look here! I've got the money."

He showed and rattled the pound's worth of silver he had.

"Come on. You get into my boat, and I'll get into yours."

"No, yer won't," said Bob. "I won't sell it."

"What!" cried the man angrily, and he raised one of his oars from the water.

"I won't sell," cried Bob, seizing the oars as he dropped his rod into the boat.

"You mean to tell me that you're going to make a fool of me like that!"

He began to pull the little tub in which he sat toward the gig, but Bob was too quick for him. The gig glided through the water at double the rate possible to the old craft, and though it was boy against man, the former could easily hold his own.

Fortunately they were not moored to the bank or the event might have been different, for the man had raised his oar as if with the intention of striking the boat in which the boys were seated.

"Here, you, stop!" he shouted.

Bob replied in dumb show with his sculls, dipping them as fast as he could, and looking very pale the while, till they were well out of reach, when he rested for a moment, and yelled back in defiant tones the one word--

"Yah!"