''Ere!' said Smith, bitterly aggrieved, ''old on. I saw 'im first!'
'I've got 'im first!' chortled Jones, stooping down and picking up the morsel of steel. 'Ow!' he yelled the next instant, dropping it as if it had stung him, and sucking his fingers; 'the bloomin' thing's red-'ot!'
'Serve you ruddy well right,' retorted Smith. 'It ain't yourn, any'ow. You leave it alone!'
'I tell you it is mine,' answered the burnt gentleman. 'I got 'im first!'
'Look 'ere, Jones, if you carn't play fair I'll give you a punch on the jaw; s'welp me I will. I'm bigger'n wot you are, and I tells you I see'd the bloomin' thing first!'
'I got 'old of 'im first, an' don't care wot you says an' does,' exclaimed Jones, putting his foot on the coveted fragment. 'I'——
Further conversation was interrupted by the advance of Smith, and in another instant the quarterdeck of H.M.S. —— was the scene of an impromptu battle. It would have been quite a pretty little tussle, for Smith was large, breathless, and bulky, while Jones was thin and wiry; but unfortunately the gunlayer, a sergeant, noticed that something was amiss with his weapon, and removed his eye from the telescopic sight.
'Here, you two,' he shouted, 'behave yourselves, and get on with loading the gun!'
''E's tryin' to pinch my splinter, sargint!' wailed Jones, applying a grimy hand to a rapidly swelling eye. 'I got 'im first!'
'No, sargint, 'e's a liar,' Smith cried with an air of injured innocence; 'I see'd it first!'