“Why, it’s like playing shuttlecock and battledore,” said Esau grimly. “If they served me so I should kick.”
But the little Chinaman did not resist in the slightest degree; he only bore the buffeting patiently till such time as he could rescue his bundle, and escape to the other side of the deck, where, as if he were accustomed to such treatment, he shook himself, pulled down his blouse, and, amidst the roars of laughter that had arisen, he placed his bundle on the bulwark, and folding his arms upon it, leaned there gazing out to sea.
“I do hate to see big chaps bullying little ones,” said Esau in a whisper, as I stood hoping that the horse-play was at an end, for I shared Esau’s dislike to that kind of tyranny; and though the little Celestial was nothing to me whatever, I felt hot and angry at what had been going on, and wondered why Gunson, a strong, a powerful man, had stood there smoking without interfering in the least.
But my hope of the horse-play being at an end was not gratified, for a few minutes after I saw the two men whisper together, and the big fellow took out his knife and tried the edge.
“Hullo!” whispered Esau, “he ain’t going to cut his head off, is he?”
I did not answer, though I seemed to divine what was about to take place, and the blood flushed into my cheeks with the annoyance I felt.
My ideas were quite correct, for directly after the second of the two men lounged up quietly behind the Chinaman, and before he was aware of it, he too cleverly undid the tail, but kept hold of it and drew it away tight.
“Hallo!” he shouted, so as to be heard above the roars of laughter which arose, “why what’s all this ere?”
The little fellow put up his hands to his head, and bent down, calling out piteously, while the big passenger took a step or two forward with the open knife hidden in his hand. Then clapping his left on the Chinaman’s head, he thrust it forward, so that the tail was held out tightly, and in another moment it would have been cut off close to the head, if in my excitement I had not suddenly made a leap forward, planting my hands on the man’s chest, and with such good effect consequent upon my weight being entirely unexpected, that he staggered back some yards, and then came down heavily in a sitting position on the deck.
I was as much astonished at the result as he was, and as there was a roar of laughter from all on deck, he sat there staring at me and I at him, till I could find words to say indignantly—