"Don't take any favors from 'em, Pudge," ordered Ben in his nastiest way.
"Why don't you get out and walk," demanded Peewee hotly, "if you don't want to accept any favors? You're a fine chap—I don't think."
"Close up, infant," commanded Kingdon, hearing this. "Try to be hospitable."
"Hospitable!" muttered Hicks. "They've been so nice to us—stealing that permit and trying to get us put off the island——"
Horace Pence actually grinned at this. "You must have put it all over Enos Quibb," he said in his drawling way. "How did you do it? Gratitude for saving him from a watery grave, no doubt?"
"If he showed gratitude, it's more than somebody else," snapped Midkiff, boiling over.
"You're the fellow they call Grouch, aren't you?" Horace asked, still smiling. "Name seems to fit."
Kingdon interfered before the slow Midkiff could get back at his tormentor.
"Let them rave, Midkiff," the skipper said. "They got the best of us the other day. We have to admit it. But the affair isn't over yet."
"We got the permit just the same," laughed Horace openly.