CHAPTER XXI
FLINT'S WAY
Bones swaggered into the cabin whilst we were still eating, and his leathery face crinkled in what he intended for an amorous grimace as his eyes fell upon Moira.
"This is what I calls proper homelike," he declared. "You come and sit on Billy's knee, my pretty, and cut up this here goat for me."
I started to rise, but Darby was ahead of me.
"Do ye so much as put a finger on her, and I'll send a bullet into the black heart o' ye," he challenged in his shrill boy's voice.
"Oh, ye will? Ye red-headed——"
"Me head's the ship's luck," boasted Darby. "The less ye say on that score, the betther for ye."
"We'll see to that!" snarled Bones. "You're the cabin boy, my lad, and no more; and I——"
He tugged at his cutlass-hilt, and Darby, in no wise daunted, hauled forth a pistol as long as his arm. But before one could assail the other Flint shoved in from the companionway and caught Bones by the shoulder.