"What now, Bill?" he demanded. "Ain't we got enough to face wi'out you fightin' in the cabin?"
"And would ye ha' me take impidence and worse from this red-headed land-rat as Long John picked up in New York?" shouted Bones.
"I'd not," returned Flint. "Darby, you may be my good luck and a lad o' promise, but I'll lay the cat to your shoulders if you go for to make trouble."
"'Twas him was afther makin' the throuble," answered Darby sturdily. "Wasn't he botherin' Misthress O'Donnell? Sure, I'm Irish, the same as her, and I'll kill the rogue that does be givin' her cause for to weep a tear—that I will. And I care not who he may be!"
"Easy, all," admonished Flint. "What's this, Bill?"
"Blow me for a dock-swab if I can see as how she'd oughter be set apart," blustered Bones. "I'm mate, I am, and if I——"
Flint's bloodshot eyes focused upon him with something of the silent force that I had seen Murray employ against his wild crew.
"You know better nor that, Bill," he said quietly. "Here Long John's just been to tell me the crew ha' demanded a fo'csle council, and God knows what Allardyce and his gang will be up to. And you want to bust into the middle of Rule Four. Gut me! There's many things I held against Andrew Murray, but one thing he did as was the wisest any gentleman adventurer ever done—and it's to his credit no less because Bart Roberts done it before him—and that was Rule Four."
"A woman's a prize, same as treasure," grumbled Bones.
"Oh, no, she ain't! A woman's trouble—she's no prize. You know what happens when there's women aboard a buccaneer. Jealousy, fightin', and as much blood spilled as in an action. We can't afford to lose no more men, Bill. Here we are wi' a bare ship's company left out o' five hundred men! I tell ye I'm for sendin' down the plank any man as draws a knife from this day."