“Not ast yer, my lad? Well, I won’t if yer say as I arn’t to. But it must ha’ been something very bad indeed.”
“It was, Tom, horribly bad; but—but he didn’t call me anything. It was something he said made me so angry. I wouldn’t have fought like that for anything he had called me.”
“Ho!” said the sailor, thoughtfully. “Then it was about somebody else?”
“Yes, Tom,” said the lad, frowning, and with his eyes flashing with the remains of his anger.
“Then it must have been something as he called me,” said the sailor, naïvely. “Yes, I know he’s got his knife into me. So you licked him well for saying what he did, Master Aleck?”
“Yes,” said the lad, thoughtfully, and with the frown deepening upon his face.
“Then I says thankye, Master Aleck, and I won’t forget it, for it was very hansum on yer.”
“What was?” said the lad, starting.
“What was? Why, you licking that big ugly lout, my lad, for calling me names.”
“No, no, no,” cried Aleck, quickly; “it was not for that.”