“And pray, what would you do?” said I, half impertinently.
“I 'd just say,4 Look here, young gent, is this balderdash here your hand? Well, now, eat your words. Yes, eat them. I mean what I say. Eat up that letter, seal and all, or, by my oath, I 'll break every bone in your skin!'”
“It is exactly what I intend,” cried a voice, hoarse with passion; and Jopplyn himself sprang into the room, and dashed at me.
The skipper was a most powerful man, but it required all his strength, and not very gingerly exercised either, to hold off my enraged adversary. “Will you be quiet, Christy?” cried he, holding him by the throat “Will you just be quiet for one instant, or must I knock you down?”
“Do! do! by all means,” muttered I; for I thought if he were once on the ground, I could finish him off with a large pewter measure that stood on the table.
With a rough shake the skipper had at last convinced the other that resistance was useless, and induced him to consent to a parley.
“Let him only tell you” said he, “what he has told me, Christy.”
“Don't strike, but hear me,” cried I; and safe in my stockade behind the skipper, I recounted my mistake.
“And you believe all this?” asked Jopplyn of the skipper, when I had finished.
“Believe it,—I should think I do! I have known him since he was a child that high, and I 'll answer for his good conduct and behavior.”