“Your uncle, de Skipper Vanbrennen: no, he owe me four guilders, and he has owed me for a long time. Besides his ship may sink.”
“He shall pay you the four guilders, and for this attendance also,” replied Philip in a rage; “come directly,—while you are disputing, my mother may be dead.”
“But, Mr Philip, I cannot come, now I recollect. I have to see the child of the Burgomaster at Terneuse,” replied Mynheer Poots.
“Look you, Mynheer Poots,” exclaimed Philip, red with passion; “you have but to choose,—will you go quietly, or must I take you there? You’ll not trifle with me.”
Here Mynheer Poots was under considerable alarm, for the character of Philip Vanderdecken was well known.
“I will come by-and-by, Mynheer Philip, if I can.”
“You’ll come now, you wretched old miser,” exclaimed Philip, seizing hold of the little man by the collar, and pulling him out of his door.
“Murder! murder!” cried Poots, as he lost his legs, and was dragged along by the impetuous young man.
Philip stopped, for he perceived that Poots was black in the face.
“Must I then choke you, to make you go quietly? for, hear me, go you shall, alive or dead.”