Page:The Dark Frigate (Hawes).djvu/164

And the Old One said to Harry Malcolm, ‘‘Saw you not how deftly the fellow twisted out of the corner, and with a sly remark that no one can take amiss? Oh, he is a slippery dog and I am minded to cut his throat out of hand!”

“Now, that would be very foolish, for where there’s one of them, there’s always two, and the one will toll the other on until there are two dogs by the heels instead of one.”

At that the Old One laughed harshly, and the two, who were after a left-handed fashion uncommonly congenial, went off well pleased with their conceit.

Down in the hold the kettle boiled right merrily, and the cook swelled with pride that he had a mate to carry and fetch. He cuffed the poor fellow this way, and he cuffed him that. He threw a pan at him when the fire smoked worse than common, and he thrust a fistful of flour into his face and down his neck when he let the fire lag. He flung him his length on the floor for spilling a pint of water; and when in despair the lad fled for his life, the cook seized him by the hair and haled him back and put a long knife at his breast and swore to have his heart’s blood. Oh, the cook was in a rare and merry mood, for he had drunk more sack than was good for him from the cask he had marked as his own; but as he had waxed exceeding gay and haughty, the sack had dulled his wits and he was drunker than he knew.

“Come, thou pig! Thou son of a swine!” he yelled. “Ladle out the fish and choose of the best for the cabin. Yea, choose in abundance and summon the master’s boy and bid him haste. And do thou bestir thyself and carry to the men.” And with that, he fetched the poor fellow a blow on his head, which knocked him off his feet.