“Nonsense!”
“’Tisn’t. He always favours you.”
“Not he.”
“To turn upon us like that just because it’s almost a calm! A growling old snarly! I never saw such a temper. Now he has gone forward to set the men to do something that doesn’t want doing.”
“He’s a bit out of temper this morning because the skipper has been at him about something.”
“Yes; I heard him at it. Nice pair they are, and a pretty life they lead the men!”
“Oh, well, never mind that. Tom May has got the grains and the line ready, and I want to begin.”
“A boy! Apeing a man, and all that stuff!” muttered Roberts. “I suppose he never was a boy in his life.”
“Oh, wasn’t he! There, never mind all that.”
“But I do mind it, sir,” said Roberts haughtily, as he involuntarily began to pass his fingers over the spot just beneath his temples where the whisker down was singed. “I consider that his words were a perfect insult.”