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No more soldiering, Petrak: and see that ye keep yer jaw battened down, Mr. Trenholm, or I'll take a hand in this that ye won't relish and attend to ye in a way ye won't fancy." "Ye'll play fair with me, won't ye, Thirkle?" asked Petrak. "Fair as ye deserve. Move along with that cargo." Petrak began to whine to himself, and I said nothing more until we went in with the last sack.
"Aye, sir. One trip out of Cardiff to Delaware Breakwater in the Skipton Castle. Stood wheel " "See the mate," said Captain Riggs, and Petrak went out, deserting my baggage. A black boy in a scarlet sarong took my bag away to my stateroom, but I went up to the hurricane-deck, where I found a grass-chair under an awning and sat down to enjoy a cigar.
"He was a bad one, all right," agreed Petrak, wiping his mouth and giving Thirkle the bottle. "Bad Buckrow they called him when I first knew him, and bad he was to the end; but I never looked to give to him, leastwise not the way I did, in a hole like that. Howsome it be, I don't stand for no smash in the mouth like he give me ain't that right, Thirkle?"
"But it'll all rust up into great gobs if it's left any great while I don't like so much water drippin' over the place, Thirkle." "Gold don't rust, Bucky," called Petrak, and he laughed immoderately and slapped his knees with his hands. "But what better place is there, Bucky? It's getting late now, lads, and that's the best place for it."
Petrak kept before me, with the sacks between us, and his bloody knife pulled to the front of his belt. After he had stowed each sack he helped me back out, or assisted me to turn, which was always a hard task for me.
I pleaded to be put on the ground, complaining about my leg, and Petrak finally wrapped the rope about my legs and threw me to the ground, more to keep me quiet than to ease my supposed suffering. They left me laying helpless in a thicket of young bamboo shoots, with my head and shoulders in the sand.
Then without warning he sprang on Buckrow's back with a snarl like an animal, and the two of them went down in the narrow passage. "Gawd a'mighty!" screamed Buckrow, with every bit of air in his lungs, and I heard Petrak strike again. "Red he got me he " "Good!" said Thirkle into my ear, as if speaking to me.
"Can't say, sir," said Petrak, looking about nervously, and feeling at his belt. "Can't say! Can't say! You can't say because that's yer knife right there under yer eyes! That's yer knife and you killed this man!" "Tell the truth, my good man," interjected Meeker, holding up his hands. "Tell the truth and " "Belay!" yelled Riggs. "You speak when ye're spoken to, Mr. Meeker, if you please!"
"That's what ye want, aint' it?" asked Petrak, who noticed that Thirkle was not so friendly as he had been. "You keep to work and never mind so much talk," said Thirkle. "If ye stand there that way, it'll be morning before we get away." "I'm workin', ain't I? Can't a man stop to breathe, himself, I'd like to know?" Thirkle made no reply, but went on running his thumb over the ends of the notes.
"That's all right," growled Buckrow, who was in an ill humour. "We was to work even, and ye ain't been doin' yer part, Thirkle. A bargain's a bargain I'd have ye know, and I'm to see ye keep to yer part of it." "Pipe down pipe down, Bucky," said Petrak, who seemed in glee after the brandy he had had. "It's the drink talkin', Bucky.
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