"Fool!" he panted. "You geeve me ze eensult I will haf your life!"
"You have already insulted me, my friends and everything American. It's your turn to take a little of the medicine."
"Eef we were een France—"
"Which we are not. We are still in America, the land of the free. But I don't care to have a quarrel with you. Bruce put the fellow down. If he minds his business in the future, don't throw him overboard."
"All right," grunted the big fellow; "but I was just going to drop him in the wet."
He put the man down, and the fellow seemed undecided what to do.
Harry Rattleton laughed.
"Now wake a talk—no, I mean take a walk," he cried. "It will be a good thing for your health."
"Come, Maurel," said the master, with an attempt at dignity; "come away from ze fellows!"
Maurel was glad enough to do so. He had thought to frighten the youths without the least trouble, but had been handled with such ease that even after it was all over he wondered how it could have happened.