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"Well spoken, indeed," echoed Grummidge, "and I thank you, Master Spitfire, for bringin' this here matter to a head. Now, lads," he added, turning to the crowd, "you have bin wrong an' informal, so to speak, in your proceedin's when you appinted me governor o' this here colony.
I want to make a clean breast of it afore I goes. I've been a bad man, Grummidge, there's no question about that in my own mind, whatever may be in the mind of others. I had even gone the length of making up my mind to murder you, the first safe chance I got, for which, and all else I've done and thought agin ye, I ax your pardon." "You have it" said his friend earnestly. "Thank 'ee.
He missed his aim so badly as to plunge his weapon into the hood! Nothing could have been more fortunate. The air escaped and the hood collapsed. At the same moment Grummidge received an ugly scratch on the cheek which sent him sprawling. As he rose quickly he observed Swinton's club, which he grasped and brought vigorously down on the seal's now unprotected nose, and felled it.
"There's somethin' in that, Grummidge somethin' in that," said the sick man eagerly. Then the hopeful look disappeared as he added slowly, "but I fear, Grummidge, that what you say don't quite fit my case, for I've got a notion that the Almighty must have been willin' all my life to save me from myself, and that all my life I've bin refusin' to listen to Him." "How d'ye make that out, boy?"
We don't deserve it, though we are awful sinners, for we've done nothin' as I knows on to hurt them savages. We can't speak to them an' they can't speak to us, an' there's nobody to help us. Won't you do it, Lord?" "Sure it's no manner o' use goin' on like that, Grummidge," said another voice. "You've done it more than wance a'ready, an' there's no answer.
Nearly every one ran to the bow or leaped on the bulwarks, and the prisoners were left unguarded. Seeing this, Grummidge quietly cut their bonds unobserved, and then hurried forward to gaze with the rest. Even the man at the tiller left his post for a moment to get a better view of the land.
Grummidge possessed a fair-sized clasp-knife. Armed with this, he rushed boldly in and made a powerful stab at the creature's heart. Alas! for the poor man, even though his stabbing powers had been good instead of bad, for he would only have imbedded the short weapon in a mass of fat without touching the heart. But Grummidge was a bad stabber.
The party, therefore, that finally continued in pursuit of the Indians was composed of Grummidge, George Blazer, Fred Taylor, Little Stubbs, Garnet Squill, and several others. Armed with bows, arrows, short spears, and clubs, these set off without delay into the forest, trusting to the sun and stars for guidance.
He might as well have bestowed his bad pun on a rabbit, for Grummidge was essentially dense and sober-minded. "But we've had a few rabbits of late, an' ducks an' partridges," he added. "Rabbits! ducks! partridges!" repeated his companion, with contempt. "How many of them delicacies have we had? That's what I wants to know." "Not many, I admit for there's none of us got much to boast of as shots."
"Shots!" echoed Grummidge. "You're right, Stubbs. Of all the blind bats and helpless boys with the bow, there's not I believe, in the whole world such a lot as the popilation of Wagtail Bay. Why, there's not two of ye who could hit the big shed at sixty paces, an' all the fresh meat as you've brought in yet has bin the result o' chance.
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