“Don’t—don’t!” said Mike now, in a low voice, full of the misery the lad felt. “I feel as if you were jumping on me for what I did.”
“Do you? Well, I’m not going to jump on you. Come, I have got you to speak at last, and there’s an end of it. I say, Ladle, it’s too stupid for us two to be out now, when we want to talk about how we’re stuck here.”
“I feel as if I can’t speak to you,” said Mike huskily.
“More stupid you. Didn’t I tell you it’s all over now? You were in a passion, and so was I. Now you’re not in a passion, no more am I; so that’s all over. You heard what the pirate captain said about us?”
“Yes,” said Mike dolefully.
“Well, he and old Joe— Here, Ladle: I’m going to kick old Joe. I don’t care about his being old and grey. A wicked old sneak!—I’ll kick him, first chance I get, for leaving us in the lurch; but that isn’t what I was going to say. Here, why don’t you turn round and sit up? Don’t let those beggars think we’re afraid of them. I won’t be,—see if I am.”
Mike slowly changed his position, turning round and sitting up.
“Now, then, that’s better,” said Vince. “What was I going to say? Oh! I know. The pirate captain and old Joe wanted to make us believe that we were to be taken out to sea, to walk the plank or be hung or shot or something.”
“Joe said something about Botany Bay and sending us there.”
“No, he didn’t; he said Bottonny, and there is no such place. He couldn’t do it, and he couldn’t keep us prisoners here.”